Our Latest Flood. Used to be a road here

[jeff of pa]

Used to be a street park here

[jeff of pa]

http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=Nc2vW-wBTAY

[jeff of pa]

boy when that hole dries out....run a detector around in it.

on the 1875 Map the Park was a Creek.
it appears the creek was never filled in, Just
covered over & The Pressure Blew it through
the ground.

Last time I Hunted the park,
a Neighbor in the area said there
was a Wishing well there.

But I don't know if an actual well.

It is fun to think coins Sprayed Up with the force of the water

Of course My wish (Coin) was never Thrown in
to hope My wish Comes true.

[jeff of pa]

more from the area

[jeff of pa]

I'm on top of a Mountain,
But my basement got about a foot of water.

& My septic tank was Filled for a few days.

it also washed My Driveway out again.

There is a Natural Underground spring
That brings everything UP town,
Down to My, & My neighbors yards

[mrs.oroblanco]

It's terrible in the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre areas, too. My sister and brother got run out their homes, and, part of some of the bridges disappeared.

I hate to see when the water is all gone.

Beth

[jeff of pa]

in the last couple months here in PA
we had more Tornadoes then usual,
Record Heat,
more flooding then usual, Tropical storm, & hurricane
winds, an earthquake, Hail storms.

Anyone wanna Guess when the

Groundbreaking Blizzards, volcanic eruptions,
and resulting Coal fire
and Carbon Monoxide Storms begin ?

[sniffer]

I hope for your sake you're a good swimmer. I'd be willing to trade for some of that water

[mrs.oroblanco]

I wonder if all that radiation and ash from volcanoes, etc., that was due west of the US, has anything to do with the current weather conditions across the states. Gosh, I'm just listening about Texas temps again.

Here in SD, we have broken several 100 year old records, for rain, then several for temperatures. If I was still in Arizona, I'd understand that it is 103 degrees in September - but, not here, since they started keeping records.

I know we definitely still have a higher level than normal of radiation (shhhh, Japan, say nothing), as we drag out that geiger counter every couple of days - and, it has gotten into our soil and water, so says our government - that's not saying much, we have high radiation levels anyway, we have lots of uranium yellow cake, in the ground, and from mining coal, it does make the levels rise. But, our geiger counters have been almost pegged. (they were pegged a few weeks after Japan's nuclear issue, but not now). Because of uranium mining, South Dakota keeps much better
recording and testing than most other states.

Or................................if we all get enough of this, maybe by December, 2012, the apocolypse will be coming.

We've kept the grasshoppers, but there are considerably less than in previous years - even the fly population was considerably lower - and later - than other years.

The mosquitoes, though, have been a nightmare this year. The lower end of our property has always had more mosquitoes because the property that backs up to it is city property that they had to put drainage tiles into a few years ago, as all the run-off ends up there, but, the little beasts have been everywhere this year.

The bright side (and I don't know if it has anything to do with the weather), but, we are getting a population of bees, which we have been really missing for the last 3 years.

I know, in Pa, they've had a mosquito issue going, as this is NOT the first flood of the year. In the part of Pa where my sister lives, there was a huge flood in the 70's, and they built huge flood gates, built to stand a 100 year flood. Well, this year, the Susquehanna crested OVER the flood gates.

Jeff of Pa,

Hope everyone is safe - and getting dry out there for you.

Beth

[jeff of pa]

Beth

"Flood of '72" aka "Agnes"

Yes I Heard it beat that Up there where your sister Lives .

Jeff

[mrs.oroblanco]

Yep, Agnes certainly hit us hard.

I lived there then, and I spent 3 days bringing people out of Tunkhannock by way of a back logging road, hour after hour. Before that, we had just rented a trailer, and we had spent time sandbagging it, and then watching it go down the river.

Worked at our local hardware/feed/tack store, carrying everything from the street level to the third floor, and then sat in a boat and watched it float out the third floor windows. I have a scrap book from that flood. Right after that is when they put all the flood gates etc. in.

Then I went to work and had to stay there for 3 days. It was.........interesting. But, folks were great - the local gas station gave me 30 gallons of gas in cans before they shut the pumps down, so I didn't run out of gas evacuating folks, and afterwards, everyone helped in the clean up.

Of course, in the 90's, we also had a wicked tornado, so they said, which turned out to be actually 5 tornadoes, wiped out Lake Carey, 7 miles of timber down the road from us, and then traveled up the road, bouncing from side to side - and blew out 3 houses away from us. Thank God.
Firewood prices were low, low, low after those tornadoes. The game lands were marking trees and giving them away. We got 3 years wood out of it, and sold several more (not for much, though). Pretty much just covering the gas for cutting up and hauling. We actually used one of the hay wagons for hauling and the 1-1/2 ton farm truck. The county lent - yes, lent, us their big wood chipper, so we could help clean up the smaller stuff. Most of Route 92 in our area was either gone, or the mountainside was on it after Agnes, and we lost a couple of bridges that they never replaced. (turned a 15 minute trip into a 40 minute trip- fun).

During Agnes I lived across the road from my sister (part of the old Rodham homestead that belongs to my family), and the water didn't get that high, of course. I remember being told to get flood insurance, and also thinking that, if we ever got flooded up there, there would be nobody around to collect the insurance proceeds from. That's where my sister went during this last flood. (in fact, that's where most everyone in the family, and a few others from "down" the road went.)

Now I want to dig out that scrapbook and scan some of those pictures onto a cd.

One thing I have said - and it gets more and more the older I get - I have been lucky enough to have lived during some of the most notable history of our country - from fires floods, bombings, the rise and fall of communism, the spreading of democracy, West and East Germany reunited - and I'm still around for some more.

Beth

[packerbacker]

As long as people stay safe; that's the most important thing. Maybe they can take some of these billions of dollars and start repairing flood damaged roads first.

[mrs.oroblanco]

Jeff of Pa,

Got these from my sister today. So many people that I grew up with are completely out of house and home.

Wyoming and a part of Susquehanna county - Tunkhannock and Meshoppen, Pa.

[mrs.oroblanco]

Wanted to mention, that Hardware Store you see flooded is the same one that we moved everything up to the 3rd floor during the Agnes Flood.

Also, you can see the "flood gates" - she said the water had gone over them, and then got trapped on both sides of the flood gates.

Funny, it never occurred to me that the same gates that should stop water from coming into town, would also trap the water IN town, if it went over.

The one bridge is long, and high over the water, but the water managed to come up to the bottom of the bridge on most of it, but, went over the bridge at the southern end - and, she said, today, that they determined that the underpinnings on that side had been damaged. That is THE only bridge in town, so people are going to have to go around, some 40 miles to get to Wal~Mart, or the employment office (which is that yellow building with the tipping flag).

Beth