Second Body Found In Flood Search In N.Y.'S Catskills

ROSCOE, N.Y. (AP) _ Police searching a flood-ravaged corner of the Catskills found a woman's body Friday, two days after her husband's remains were recovered from a deluge that washed out roads

Friday, June 22nd 2007, 8:43 pm

By: News On 6

ROSCOE, N.Y. (AP) _ Police searching a flood-ravaged corner of the Catskills found a woman's body Friday, two days after her husband's remains were recovered from a deluge that washed out roads and slammed trees into bridges. Two people remained missing.

The body of Marjorie Shutts, 79, was found around noon by state police scuba divers in a pond in the rural Delaware County town of Colchester, said Trooper Nelson Torres.

The body of her husband, 81-year-old Fred Shutts, was found Wednesday amid debris downstream from his home, police said. The house was ripped from its foundation during a storm Tuesday night that sent a wall of water raging through this area 100 miles northwest of New York City. The force of the water was so powerful it snapped trees and power poles and sent entire cars floating downstream through the rural hamlets along the winding Route 206.

More than 30 families were evacuated.

Scores of searchers have been picking through the mounds of muddy rubble left in the flash flood's wake since Wednesday. Cadaver dogs have been aiding in the search for two more missing people. Torres said searchers were concentrating on the piles of debris left behind. The search was expected to continue Saturday.

State and federal inspectors were in the field evaluating infrastructure issues and dealing with individual homeowners, said Dennis Michalski of the State Emergency Management Office.

After evaluating roads and bridges, county officials said early damage estimates are in the millions.