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Approximately 50 homes in the borough will be affected if the river rises too high.
Moore
SHICKSHINNY – Preparations for flooding were under way early Thursday morning in Shickshinny.
Mayor Beverly Moore and Council President Rosalie Whitebread went door-to-door to the roughly 50 homes in the borough that stand to be affected if the Susquehanna rises too high, discussing emergency management plans.
“We have a lot of people who have already started to pack up,” she said at 2 p.m. Thursday.
She said the borough is monitoring the height and speed of the river and has set up a disaster center in the borough fire hall, where residents can go with questions.
The river, she said, has been “very swollen; after last week it really didn’t go down that much.”
Shickshinny is not protected by a flood levee. At 24 feet, Canal Street begins to flood, followed by Susquehanna Avenue.
The rising waters also back up Shickshinny Creek, which drains into the Susquehanna, causing it to spill over its banks and flood Route 11, Moore said.
Moore also met with Luzerne County officials at 5 p.m. the Luzerne County Emergency Management Agency Building in Wilkes-Barre.
Steve Bekanich, the county’s EMA coordinator, said the river is expected to crest at 31 feet sometime Saturday.
Moore said she advises residents in the flood zone to watch television for flooding emergency updates, to make arrangements for pets, and to pack extra clothes and take any necessary medications with you if you leave.
Moore, who lives on the river, said she has begun moving items out of her garage.
“Everybody knows, once I start to pack up, they’d better get moving,” she said.
Moore said the weather has also led the borough to postpone its Sesquicentennial dance, originally scheduled for Saturday. The celebration of the borough’s 150th anniversary has been renamed the Post-flood St. Patrick’s Day Sesquicentennial kickoff and is rescheduled for April 2.