The prospects look better than they did yesterday. But the river's already way higher than I'd want it to be, measuring 34 feet at the Wilkes-Barre Hydrolic station, and still rising apparently.
WNEP Channel 16's web site has some aerial footage of flooding in Wilkes-Barre, including the flood gates on the Market Street Bridge..
They also have a viewer participation slide show. Including a photo of somebody's porch floating down the Susquehanna River in Harding: WNEP: photo by Jon Williams
I'm sure there'll be several photos featuring the KMart Plaza in Edwardsville on Route 11 before it's over.
After all, that plaza floods when somebody spills their drink at Jim Dandy's!
What I saw near the Lackawanna River in Scranton (near the Green Ridge shopping area), the waters had receded off the streets, except for what people were pumping out of their basements into the streets.
Some of my friends were forced to evacuate their homes in Wilkes-Barre, under the mandatory evacuation order.
All non-essential travel is strictly prohibited in Wyoming County, which includes Falls.
So there won't be any getting near the cottage for the duration.
Meanwhile, it's been a beautiful day here today.
Most of the day the sky was blue sporting just a few light fluffy clouds over the Scranton area. It's warm, sun shining, with a light breeze.
As if the past few days of torrential rains are a thing of the past, but apparently the deluge is not over. Susquehanna River level is said to be still rising, and we're expecting another, hopefully much smaller, rain storm.
But don't blindly pay heed to rumours:
The Luzerne County rumor control hotline is 800-821-3716.
When the steady rains started falling, I wasn't even particularly concerned, because we'd been in a drought, and everything was bone dry, and I figured the ground could easily soak it up well enough.
But as it turns out, the ground in Northeastern Pennsylvania and about saturated within a matter of 2 days.
Between Scranton and Falls, I saw several farm fields under water, and many parts of the road were covered in water with run off and huge puddles.
It was too dark, raining too hard, and too treacherous to take any good photos.
This one was taken of the little bridge in Falls. The road was covered in water, though people were still driving over it, as the water slushed up against the bridge, splashing over the guard rails.
(In the photo, the water splashing up against the guard rail can be seen in 2 spots, the darkness you see underneath the guard rail.)
(I dared not to cross it to get to the Falls Bridge, because I was afraid I wouldn't get back, and might have to go to New York in order to get back to Scranton.)
'The Cottage' was inaccessible, due to a creek flooding over the road leading to it. I couldn't see the road on the other, the road was flooded so wide. I could hear trees breaking, and even saw one break, right in front of me, from the force of the flowing water.
From Rte 2013 in Falls, along the river & railroad track, the river looked far higher than the reported 14 feet that was being reported at the time. It looked more like times I'd seen the river when they were reporting it at 25 feet. (I suppose there could've been a discrepancy upstream from the Wilkes-Barre measuring station.)
What this means for my family's cottage:
At 31ft, the water laps over the river bank. (See April 3rd 2005 & April 4th 2005)
At 32ft, the water is covering the lawn between the cottage and the riverbank.
At 33ft, the water is lapping at the structure.
At 34ft, the water is inside the cottage.
At 35ft, there's almost a foot of water in the first floor. (See September 18th 2004)
At 38ft, I believe the entire first floor is under water, and there's at least a foot of water in "the little cottage" behind it (which is up a little bit of a hill).
This is bad news all around, because if the entire first floor is flooded, not only is there damage, but everything inside floats around doing damage. The cottage will be lucky if it stays on the foundation in the conditions they're forecasting now.
And the raising of the levee in Wilkes-Barre, some say, has actually worsened the situation of flooding in Falls, so it may well be more serious, for the cottage, than the 1972 flood, even if the water level is lower.
The crest is predicted for the morning of Thursday, June 29th. In other words, don't expect photos of the destruction before the weekend when the waters will have, hopefully, receded to a point where the destruction is accessible.
The rain is still coming down steady here in Scranton. I'm starting to consider building an ark.
Inspirational posters are apparently very fashionable now in a lot of workplace offices. You know, the pretty pictures with inspirational or encouraging sayings. Generally they have a beautiful landscape, a winding road, a peaceful scene, or some flowers, and some kind of caption involving words like 'perseverance', 'achievement', and 'success'.
But there's also one I've seen that has a picture of a sliced apple that looks like an orange inside.
And the caption reads, "Make it Happen".
I'm a little unclear on this one. What exactly is the message here?
Is this for employers to hang in the workplace to remind employees they're expected to accomplish the impossible?
I'm still alive, still eating watermelon, still wearing overalls, and still... well, still whatever.
And apparently, I'm still "educating" the masses... Because The Visine on Nipples Post remains in the top 20 most accessed pages on this domain.
But although I saw a mattress abandoned on the side of Highway 380 South a few weeks ago, I passed it too quickly to get a picture, darn it.
No news is not always necessarily good news.
I do recommending avoiding getting a massive bacterial infection. Not just because of the drawbacks of an infection, but because of the drawbacks of staying on antibiotics for extended periods. Let's put it this way, I'm sick to death of yogurt smoothies. They don't come in watermelon flavour either...
Which is surprising, because recently watermelon flavour seems to have become popular for a lot of things finally. And why shouldn't it have, and sooner, I ask?
superficiality >>If the facade is what's important to you, all you wind up with is an illusion. Disillusionment is the gift of substance.
-- Chloe<<
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