Starting Sunday night, 1/24/10, and ending mid-day on Monday, 10/25/10, nonstop rain fell in the region and dumped over 3 and a half inches of rain.  The West Branch Susquehanna hit flood stage on Tuesday, 1/26/10, and many of the major tributaries flooded their banks.

 

Montoursville: Broad Street Bridge & Loyalsock Creek

I apologize for the lack in quality of these photos.  The fire police were very safety/liability oriented so of course, they wouldn't let me near the flooded streets since I didn't live nearby.  So I took these three photos from the Interstate 180 bridge over the flooded and raging Loyalsock Creek, which is a major tributary of the West Branch Susquehanna.

 

The green truss bridge, locally known as "the green bridge" wasn't covered, but the street heading into town was under water and many businesses around the bridge had to deal with about 2-3 feet of water.

 

This is an on-ramp for I180.

 

Williamsport: Maynard Street Bridge & West Branch Susquehanna River

 

Between classes today I walked over to the Maynard Street Bridge in Williamsport to photograph the swollen Susquehanna:

 

The new Riverwalk project goes under the Maynard Street Bridge so walkers and bikers don't have to cross the always busy street.  That was completely under water:

 

 

This bridge is as old as me!!!

 

 

The Susquehanna Lake- err River:

 

South Williamsport:

 

The Riverwalk.  Man I'd hate to be the guy who has to clean up all of this:

 

 

 

 

The West Branch Susquehanna at 21 feet.  One foot above flood stage:

Oh wow.  The Susquehanna is usually a very shallow river, correct?  (like you can walk across it)

Well I just found out yesterday that the normal level at the gauge in Williamsport is about 4 feet deep.  But there is a dam upstream from the gauge and I think the river at that point is maybe 7-8ish feet deep.  20 feet is flood stage though, and the dam was nowhere to be seen in the last two days.  The dikes are about 40 feet high above the riverbed, and the water level markings on one of the Market Street bridge piers goes up to 35 feet, so this was a moderate flood.  It still caused a lot of havoc throughout the area though.

Oy!!!

Oh yeah. The flood control definitely did its job today. Downtown Williamsport is an extremely low-lying area, and in 1894, 1936, and 1946 there were major, damaging floods. The 1946 flood crested at 21 feet as well, and the 1936 flood crested at almost 34 feet. Our dike-and-levee system was built in 1955, so Downtown was protected from the Agnes floods in '72, the 26 foot crest in '96, and the 21 foot crest today.

Cool photos, but it's making me cold.  A couple years ago, a company I used to work for was designing an indoor events and athletic complex in a park that floods every few years.  The building had to be designed to accept and withstand floodwaters that could put it under 7 feet of water, since filling up the site would be too expensive.  These underwater bike paths were a reminder for me

Damn, that water is cold this time of year. It'll leave a thick layer of slimy mud over the paths. We get that almost every spring. The current administration puts a lot of emphasis on the Greenway, and they've done a pretty good job of cleaning it up. In the past, the most we could expect was that they'd make one pass with a skid loader, and a couple of inches would remain to harden into a treacherous, rutted trap for the unwary.

 

I recall driving on roads that parallelled the Susquehanna in May, 1963 under blue skies with white, puffy clouds. Orchards on the hillsides were in bloom, and the river was at normal flow and nearly crystal clear. There was a place that I think wasn't too far from Williamsport where it looked as if I could have walked almost all the way across the river on big rocks.

^There are still remnants of mud in Montoursville where the Loyalsock Creek flooded, and those bike paths in Williamsport are completely covered in mud.

It's going to be a lengthy clean-up because now temperatures are back in the mid 20's.  During the rain, it got up to about 60 degrees.

Damage was moderate, but manageable, and there were no major injuries or deaths related to the floods.