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Robert Spencer checks the water level in the emptied basement of his Jackson Township home. He put the furnace and water heater up on blocks in anticipation of the flooding from Huntsville Creek. Water overflowed from the spillway of the Huntsville Reservoir, inundating Hillside Road and flooding basements in the area. Spencer’s basement was not the only one flooded by the water. The road was closed early Friday.
AIMEE DILGER/The Times Leader
Workers vacuum up water along Tunkhannock Avenue in West Pittston. The low-lying area floods quickly.
AIMEE DILGER/The Times Leader
Areas between the dike and the Susquehanna River are swamped in this view looking northward from the Market Street Bridge in Wilkes-Barre. The Luzerne County Courthouse is visible in the distance. The river was expected to crest early today.
AIMEE DILGER/The Times Leader
Nesbitt Park looks like a lake, with its trees poking up through the high waters of the Susquehanna River.
AIMEE DILGER/The Times Leader
Workers fill sandbags to place in front of doors and windows at the Kmart store in the Mark Plaza, Edwardsville. The shopping center, along U.S. Route 11, is outside the levee system. Employees on Thursday prepared to remove stock from the store if necessary.
AIMEE DILGER/The Times Leader
Huntsville Road in Kingston Township saw flooding early Friday morning due to spillover from the Huntsville Dam.
Clark Van Orden/The Times Leader
A steadily rising Susquehanna River crept up the dike system that protects the Wilkes-Barre area on Thursday and Friday and threatened low-lying areas outside the system.
Luzerne County Emergency Management Agency revised its earlier prediction of a crest today down to 28 feet from the original prediction of 31 feet. The crest was expected to be reached at about 1 p.m. The difference of 3 feet was enough to spare some low-lying areas, officials said. Some communities did see flooded streets.
The crisis began when days of rain and snow melt in the river’s watershed in upstate New York and Pennsylvania raised the river level this week. Wilkes-Barre closed the flood gates on its bridges to keep the streams within their banks. In Edwardsville, a homeless man was rescued by boat from Plymouth Fire and Rescue when his shelter near the Black Diamond Bridge was flooded. Jackson Township saw flooding along Hillside Road and Chase Road when Huntsville Creek overflowed.
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