EPCAMR

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Compiled by Michael Hewitt
EPCAMR Watershed Outreach Coordinator

Summer rains mean trouble for residents living above abandoned mine workings in the Anthracite Region. Schuylkill County was hit worse than most of the other counties in the region with some areas seeing more than a foot and a half of rainfall within a few days. The Audenried Treatment System has blown out for the second time since it was installed in December and is now running black. Sink holes were opening up all over the Hazleton area and Northern Schuylkill County. Mine openings that had been dry for decades were gushing like old faithful in Carbondale. Kenobles Groves Amusement Park is completely inundated again in Elysburg.

The Anthracite Region was almost finished with repairs from flooding during Ivan (9/04), but this nameless monster has wiped the slate clean and is forcing residents to start over again.

Old Forge, Lackawanna County – One of the communities hit the earliest. As of Tuesday, most of the major rivers the area had stayed in their banks but the Lackawanna River rose quickly. Flood gates in both Olyphant and lower Green Ridge in Scranton were closed along the river.

Officials in Old Forge said the river there could go higher than ever before, up to six feet higher. Old Forge Borough announced evacuations as the evening progressed. Included in the evacuations were: the 1100 to 1300 blocks of South Main Street; Connell Street; Ripple Street; Breaker Street; Union Street; Foundry Street and Humphrey Street, all in the immediate vicinity of the Old Forge Borehole and the inlet of St. John’s Creek. (Jon Meyer, WNEP News)

On a normal day, the Old Forge Borehole spews 50 Million gallons of mine drainage per day into the Lackawanna River and St. John’s Creek is completely dry due to several fractures in the stream bed which leak water into the mine pool below the ground.

South Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County - A mandatory evacuation was issued for people living in south Wilkes-Barre and Hanover Township near Solomon Creek on Tuesday as well.

Mayor Tom Leighton said anyone who was affected by any kind of flooding when the remnants of Hurricane Ivan hit in September, 2004 should expect the same thing, if not worse, this time around. (Brandie Meng, WNEP News)

Solomon Creek receives increased stormwater from newer commercial developments in the headwaters of the creek. Additionally, 2 mine drainage boreholes with average flows over 20,000 gallons per minute spill into the creek before it reaches the levee system, pumping station and the river.

Wyoming Valley, Luzerne County - The Luzerne County commissioners and emergency management officials called for mandatory evacuations Wednesday afternoon for Luzerne County residents who were flooded in 1972 with stormwater brewed up by Hurricane Agnes.

The Susquehanna crested at around 34 feet Wednesday evening. Flood stage is 22 feet, but the new levee system was built to withstand water 41 feet high. Approximately 200,000 were forced to find higher ground as a precautionary measure. Emergency shelters were filled to maximum levels.

Those protected by the levy system, were allowed back to their homes by noon the next day. Areas not protected by the levees in the Wyoming Valley are still under water and people there are not being allowed back to their homes.

River levels on the Susquehanna River continued to drop Thursday as most spots reported crests below record levels.

Near Sheppton, Schuylkill County - Extremely high flows, resulting from large amounts of rain and snow melt, caused a blowout behind the intake of the Audenried Tunnel Treatment system in the spring. This summer’s deluge caused another blowout at the intake of the system. Black water spewed out of the tunnel and into the system. What was a surrealistic scene, almost seaside landscape, of white treatment tanks and turquoise blue settling ponds only a week before during the dedication of the treatment system turned into another surrealistic scene painted black.

Carbondale, Lackawanna County - Water gushed from a mine opening, forcing crews into action. It happened in an area where people didn't think they had to worry about high water.

The sound or rushing water through Carbondale was hard to miss. It flowed right past Jim McMyne's home near Wayne and Cortland Streets. It filled his basement and his neighbor's. "I've been here 53 years and I've never had even five percent of what this is," McMyne said.

The water had to go somewhere, neighbors tried unsuccessfully to sandbag their property. Down the road, crews worked to direct the water onto Seventh Avenue and Eighth Avenue, instead of letting it seep into every yard it could find. It tore up the road as it went but that's better than the alternative, said Carbondale Mayor Justin Taylor. (Julie Sidoni, WNEP News)

Schuylkill County - Schuylkill County was also under a flood warning Monday. In Tamaqua the rain made a mess of the community swimming pool.

Officials in Schuylkill County report nearly one-fourth of Schuylkill Haven was under water Wednesday morning. The water flowed out the front door of a supermarket in Schuylkill Haven on the side of town that has been inundated by the Little Schuylkill River. (Bob Reynolds, WNEP News)

A fifty-foot hole opened up early Wednesday morning along Route 924 between Frackville and Shenandoah. Two cars plunged into the hole. The people inside the cars were rescued and taken to the hospital. Following extraction of the vehicles, the PennDOT crew awaited the arrival of state mining officials, who were called to the scene to examine the hole to determine if a possible collapse of an underground mine shaft contributed to the cave-in. However, PennDOT crews on scene speculated that several consecutive days of unrelenting rainfall was the greatest contributor to the collapse of the roadway.

In the valley below the Route 924 sinkhole, the borough of Gilberton lay submerged under approximately five feet of water a fitting sight for a town that was once nicknamed “Duck Town”.

Mayor Mary Lou Hannon called a state of emergency in Gilberton Borough late Tuesday morning when the unrelenting rain overwhelmed the community’s storm drain and water pump systems.

By Wednesday morning, the Mahanoy Creek, which flows parallel to Railroad Street in Gilberton, overflowed its banks and plunged the community underwater.

An emergency shelter was established inside a community church that sits on higher ground at the eastern end of the borough while heavy equipment and volunteer workers from the nearby Reading Anthracite Coal Co. piled walls of dirt on the west side of Main Street, creating an artificial dam that officials hoped would hold the water back long enough to begin pumping floodwaters out of the streets. (MIA LIGHT, Standard Speaker)

U.S. Rep. T. Timothy Holden, state Sen. James J. Rhoades and state Rep. Neal P. Goodman surveyed some of the flooding damage in Schuylkill County on Wednesday afternoon.

The first stop on the legislators’ tour was Wade Road in Saint Clair to view a 30-by-35-foot sinkhole across from Tom’s Garage and Auto Sales.

C.J. Weber, chairman of the Saint Clair Sewer Authority, said the probable cause was an old mine running beneath the road. The wooden support beams of the mine were visible at the bottom of the orifice. On their way through Saint Claire, they discovered another smaller sinkhole, about 8 feet deep, that opened on Front Street.

The group then made its way to the Saint Clair Sewage Treatment Plant, which was not operational. The plant’s lower two levels were completely flooded.

The legislators also visited Port Carbon, one of the hardest-hit boroughs in the county, which experienced massive flooding and widespread power outages.

“I’ve never seen it this bad,” said Rhoades, R-29. (JOSH PARSONS, REPUBLICAN & Herald)

For more stories, live video and pictures please visit Channel 16 WNEP's Website and look for the "Flood of 06".


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