Man loses daughter to floodwaters in Orange County, months before she was to be married
FORT MONTGOMERY, New York (WABC) -- The floodwaters that ravaged Orange County on Sunday took much more than basement belongings from Edward Nugent.
Because of the deluge, Edward Nugent will never get the chance to walk his daughter Pamela Nugent down the aisle. She was supposed to be married in October.
"She thought the house was going to go. She got afraid," Edward Nugent said. "As soon as she hit the street, it took her."
Pamela Nugent left her father's house in Fort Montgomery for higher ground along with his dog Minnie. Neither of them found safety.
A friend and neighbor of Pamela Nugent, Jessica Eshleman, was away when the water came rushing through her home. Nonetheless, the experience of haunts her.
"I'm still kind of in shock. I lost everything," said Eshleman.
The destruction from the floodwaters is evident all over Orange County.
"How can somebody resist against nature?" said Augustine Shadab, the manager at FairBridge Inn and Suites. "Water wind fire. Who can stand against them?"
The hotel parking lot where Shadab works in Highland Falls is a canyon of sinkholes.
But it is going to take a lot more than asphalt to fix the holes left in Edward Nugent's heart.
"She was the kindest person, sweetest person you ever want to meet," he said.
At 73-years-old, he is now planning his daughter's funeral.
"She'll be with me," he said. "Just in a different way."
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