Ivan terrible, but Diane retains river flood record

By DAVID HULSE

The Saturday morning, September 18 prediction from the National Weather Service was clear and terrifying:

“For the Delaware River near Barryville... Record flooding is forecast...with a crest of 25 to 28 feet after midnight. At 26.4 feet, record flood [is] from Hurricane Diane Aug 19 1955.”

With six to nine inches of rain Friday and overnight, officials said small stream flooding began early Saturday morning as local and county states of emergency were being declared.

In Lackawaxen, Supervisor Fred Gelderman said Round Road in Greeley was washed out, Urban Road was closed by the flooding and Westcolang Road was flooded but passable.

By mid-morning, several Highland residents with homes separated from Route 55 by Halfway Brook had called for help in getting out, Supervisor Allan Schadt said.

The Beaver Brook washed out the bridge serving Woods Road near Yulan, forcing evacuations.

Pike County Emergency Management Director Roger Maltby said Shohola Creek scoured out the base of the hillside supporting the Twin Lakes Road and about 50 feet of roadway disappeared south of the Knealing Road intersection.

In Lumberland, flooding of the Mill Brook prompted the evacuation of about 10 residents along Hollow Road. Supervisor John LiGreci said the town’s senior citizen center was opened for shelter.

LiGreci and Schadt both made precautionary calls to the American Red Cross, and as the morning wore on, a voluntary evacuation was suggested for River Road residents in Barryville.

Barryville’s five-corners were a center of morning activity, as construction company personnel and volunteers struggled to remove heavy equipment from the rising water at the site of the new river bridge. A crane, with an estimated value of $1.25 million, was left behind. A crowd of onlookers gathered to watch as an excavator and a compressor were saved after extensive efforts.

With the smaller streams cresting, the river rose at a rate of about one foot per hour and low-lying areas became inundated. LiGreci said there was chest-deep water at Jerry’s Three-River Camprground in Hillside.

Back in Barryville, the ground floor of the Carriage House Restaurant and motel, at the confluence of the Halfway Brook and the Delaware, was flooding. Yulan firefighters were called to standby after floodwater entered a vent pipe and displaced 2,000 gallons of red fuel oil into the restaurant’s flooded courtyard.

Reporting what would ordinarily be a major spill, “We called [the Department of Environmental Conservation] and they said ‘do the best you can,’” one firefighter said.

At the confluence of the Lackawaxen and Delaware, flooding closed Scenic Drive, covered the state fish commission parking lot and rose to basement of the Zane Grey Museum. The National Park Service reported that the basement took some water, but there was no major damage.

With the river now the growing concern, LiGreci said some 15 people were evacuated from low lying Lumberland homes, as residents of homes along streams which had crested were allowed to return to their houses.

Shortly after 2:00 p.m., Schadt called Shohola Supervisors Chair George Fluhr and told him Sullivan County recommended closure of the river bridge. Despite some question about who had authority to order the closure, Schadt said he ordered the closure.

The bridge reopened on Sunday morning after more questions about who now had the authority to reopen it. Unable to contact PennDOT authorities, Schadt said he called on New York DOT officials to inspect the bridge for damage before it reopened.

A mandatory evacuation of about 100 people was ordered in Barryville at about 3:30 p.m. Some people left, but many others stayed. Onlookers at the intersection were told they would be arrested if they did not leave.

By nightfall, the hamlet intersection was dark but for the flashing traffic light and the strobes of a single town constable’s car.