Beacon resident compiles local stories
A family road trip through 22 states exposed Cassie Corrigan Drymala to climate change’s effect on weather in different parts of the U.S.
Drymala, a Beacon resident, said her family was unprepared for some of the events they experienced during the trip. In New Orleans, “there would be a forecast for rain and then, all of a sudden, there are cars floating through the streets,” she said.
“That trip was very eye-opening,” said Drymala. “It felt like we were experiencing things much more frequently than I could remember even within the past five years.”
Since October 2023, she has been documenting other people’s experiences with climate change via New Yorkers Weather Storms (@newyorkersweatherstorms), an Instagram page where she collects portraits of local residents and their views on climate change and how it has affected them.
Drymala, who does not have a professional background in either photography or writing, conducts all of the interviews and shoots all the portraits. Most people want to talk and share their stories, she said, especially if they’ve had a hardship from a climate change-related event such as flooding, which is becoming more frequent in the Highlands.
In a January post, Evan Thompson, the park manager for the Hudson Highlands State Park Preserve, discusses a rainstorm in which “forecasters said we might get 1 to 2 inches of rain but we got 8 inches of rain in 12 hours.”
In October, Karen Kapoor, director of Foundry Montessori in Cold Spring, described flooding at the school’s building and her home following rainstorms in July 2023.
Those storms triggered widespread flooding in the Highlands and a federal disaster declaration. They also forced employees at Bear Mountain State Park to seek refuge in the darkened bath house of the park’s swimming pool until a stream behind the building began rising to window level, according to the post of park manager Jen Sylvestri.
“There was literally no way in or out,” said Sylvestri. “I had 26 or 27 employees that couldn’t get home that night.”
Because of the politics, Drymala said she avoids using the words “climate change” on the page, but believes that readers will relate to the personal accounts.
“I just want to talk about the weather, and I feel like if enough people share stories of what’s been happening to them, people will connect the dots for themselves and try to change,” she said.
A love of self-taught photography spurred Drymala, 46, to launch the account during the pandemic, when she had to take off from work to care for her children but continued taking pictures.
She drew inspiration from Humans of New York, the well-known photoblog that has been imitated in Beacon and other cities. Like Humans of New York, Drymala wanted to let people speak in their own voices.
“It’s just such a compelling way to share people’s individual stories and connect with one another,” she said.
A former associate in wine sales, she has also met with farmers, winemakers and restaurant owners over their run-ins with extreme weather, and with park rangers about how weather affects working conditions and visitation.
In the lower Hudson Valley, a climate-change assessment released in March by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority predicts that the weather will continue to become hotter and wetter, with an increase in rain-laden storms.
“These events are more and more frequent and intense and I was hoping to demonstrate a pattern and just make it more common and comfortable for people to share their experiences,” said Drymala.
Speaking with those directly affected has changed Drymala’s personal view on the climate crisis. She is “more hopeful and optimistic about climate change because of what I have learned from so many others and the things that are being done to try and help the issue.”
