Floodwaters Reach Shul in Stony Point but Stop Before Causing Any Damage

By Hamodia Staff

Raging floodwaters from the downpour on Sunday created a river which flowed up to the wall of the local Beit Hakneset Ohalei Yosef Yitzchak in Stony Point but receded before causing any damage to the building.

Rabbi Shmuel Amaram told Hamodia that he was keeping an eye on the flowing water and was ready to remove all the sifrei Torah if the water began entering the shul, but miraculously the water receded without causing any damage.

“The water was up against the wall of the shul, and was over a foot deep,” Rabbi Amram related. “The shul was like the teivah, which protected everything inside. Suddenly, the water turned away and the building was no longer in danger of being flooded.”

The shul, which has some seventy five members, has regular tefillos on Shabbos, and minchah and maariv each night, as well as Shacharis Sunday morning and on legal holidays. “We are close enough to Monsey to get our kosher food there, and the children attend school there as well,” he related. “Yet we are an independent neighborhood, and the shul is the focal point of the community which binds us together. Unfortunately I understand that the house of a neighbor did get flooded, and he will return in the morning to assess the damage. I hope it is not too severe. Baruch Hashem the floods did not cause any damage to the shul.