A few of my favorite Web sites are AccuWeather.com, the National Weather Service and the Middle Atlantic River Forecast Center.

I have all three bookmarked on the three computers I use for reporting. I frequently view the sites even though it’s a beautiful day or the Susquehanna River is well below flood stage.

If I had excelled at math and science in school, which I didn’t, I would probably be a meteorologist today.

I’m a freak about the weather, especially bad weather. It doesn’t matter if it’s a blizzard or heavy rain that causes flooding.

When Hurricane Gustav hit the Louisiana coastline on Labor Day, I was glued to the television flipping between CNN, MSNBC and Fox News.

When Hurricane Charley hit Florida in August 2004, I was at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., with my son, father and brother. We stopped at a diner for lunch and I asked the waitress to put CNN on the tube to watch the storm coverage.

With $9 in my pocket as Hurricane Bob moved up the East Coast in August 1991, I hopped in my Ford Mustang and headed east on Interstate 80 thinking it would take me to the New Jersey shoreline. I found myself driving across the George Washington Bridge and ended up in New Haven, Conn.

My sense of direction has greatly improved since then. I remember January 1996 as if it was yesterday.

Fired up about the elements

I was in Speech class at King’s College when temperatures reached the 60s and heavy rain melted nearly 2 feet of accumulated snow. It took an hour to drive from school to my home in Hanover Township because streets were flooded.

Like many homes, my family’s had a sump pump to remove water that seeped into the basement. But when our home lost electrical power, I was up all night bailing water with buckets to keep it from reaching the furnace.

Later, I walked to the Market Street Bridge to help fill sandbags and then volunteered to fill more sand bags when the Susquehanna started seeping through the levees in Hanover Township.

When a heavy thunderstorm dumped around 9 inches of rain in Bear Creek in May 2002, I ran down a dirt road when I heard a rescue boat was in trouble. Those in the boat were saved, but I recall walking a mile in water up to my knees carrying a female reporter because she had lost her shoes.

For much of last week, I tracked Tropical Storm Hanna on the National Hurricane Center’s Web site. Hanna was forecasted to move up the eastern coast and dump 3 to 6 inches of rain across eastern Pennsylvania on Saturday.

Anticipating flooding, I sent an interoffice e-mail to a few editors and reporters on Friday naming the flood-prone creeks and streams in the area.

Sacrificing college football and an urge to drive to the New Jersey coastline, I volunteered to work on Saturday in case there was rampant flooding.

The National Weather Service kept Luzerne County under a flood watch, as counties to the east and in New Jersey were under tropical storm warnings on Saturday.

As it turned out, Hanna left behind more than an inch of rain in the area, disappointing my expectations. I should have driven to the New Jersey coastline with my boogie board.

About the Author

Ed Lewis covers police news for the Times Leader. Reach him at elewis@timesleader.com.

Ed Lewis covers police for The Times Leader. A graduate of Hanover Area, he earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from King’s College where he also minored in political science. He interned for Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski in Washington, D.C., while in college, and formerly was an assignment editor and managing editor before finding his niche covering the very busy police beat. His hobbies include lifting weights, kickboxing, reading, carpentry, gardening, model trains and sports, especially football.

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