SHAMOKIN - What was a steady light rain for most of Monday quickly turned into a torrential downpour, causing headaches for residents living in low-drainage areas.
Calls for pump details, water rescues and flooded roads began pouring into the Northumberland County Communications Center as a swath of heavy rain embedded with thunderstorms moved through the region. The National Weather Service (NWS) in State College estimated around 2 to 3 inches of rain fell during the day - but most of it in a two-hour time period - in Northumberland, upper Dauphin and western Schuylkill counties.
Shamokin Deputy Fire Chief Jason Zimmerman said a drainage ditch that runs beside railroad tracks along Fifth Street filled with water, culm and debris, causing drains near the Fifth Street playground to become blocked. The black water was forced down Fifth Street toward Mulberry Street, bypassing several additional drains.
"It just overflowed. By the time we were aware of the situation it was too late," Zimmerman said. "It caused minor residential flooding, but we were not called to any homes for assistance."
By Tuesday morning the street department had unclogged the drains and firefighters from the Independence and West End fire companies cleared the streets of debris.
Family rescued
Three members of a family were OK after their Chevrolet Equinox became stranded in several feet of water on State Street in front of the Shamokin Area Middle/Senior High School in Coal Township. Drains also became blocked by debris, causing a miniature lake in front of the school that caught Heather Lytle off-guard.
Lytle, her husband, David, and 14-year-old son were attempting to reach Venn Access Road when the engine stalled in water that reached the bottom of the doors. They were uninjured in the ordeal.
More rain
The forecast for today calls for mostly sunny skies with a high near 81 degrees. The nice weather will be short lived, as unsettled weather moves in again Thursday.
According to NWS, showers and thunderstorms are "likely" then, with some producing gusty winds and heavy rain accumulating between 1.5 to 3 inches. Drier and cooler air will move into the region for the remainder of the week.
COAL TOWNSHIP - Margie Cwalina has experienced flooding before.
As in the Flood of 2011.
But Monday night, she and her family say, it was worse.
Her trailer home at 1443 W. Wood St. was flooded during a heavy downpour that dropped 2 to 3 inches of rain, forcing rescue personnel to evacuate her from her home at 9:30 p.m.
"The guys carried me out and they had water up to their waists" she said.
They toted her up to Chestnut Street, where neighbors gave her towels to dry off.
Cwalina, 77, initially refused to leave as she scrambled to retrieve family photo albums that were stored on lower shelves in her home.
Tuesday afternoon, friends and family were still busy cleaning up the property, trying to salvage what they could. All the carpet in her home had to be ripped out and the side skirting on the trailer removed to air it out underneath.
Her kitchen and living room were ruined. There was even "mud in my cupboards," she said.
Clifton Hart, married to Cwalina's granddaughter, Alison, was one of the family members who had been working all day on the cleanup.
"It was definitely worse than the storms that came through (in 2011) by far. She had water coming up through the heating registers in the floor," he said.
'Wood Street falls'
To the rear of her home is a small creek that runs along Wood Street, and there is a steep cliff where water comes pouring down off the mountain directly into the creek. She calls it the "Wood Street falls."
"She has been on the township about issues with debris in the creek and she went to them several times," Hart said.
Cwalina believes the problem is caused by the blockage at a nearby drain.
"It will flood again in heavy rain," she predicted.
Rob Slaby, Coal Township manager, said Tuesday that sections of a large tree that had been cut down washed downstream and blocked the underground channel the creek flows into. That caused it to overflow Monday night, he said.
"There are two pipes that keep debris out of the channel, which eventually empties into the Shamokin Creek," he said. "If they (the sections of tree) didn't get caught up in there, there wouldn't have been as large a problem."
Hoping for best
Cwalina's granddaughter, Katie Gilger, said she tried calling the Red Cross for her grandmother, but couldn't get through to them. She kept getting transferred on the phone as of early Monday afternoon.
Cwalina, who is not insured, expressed her gratitude for her family who turned out to help her with her home.
"I don't know what I would do without them" she said. "I am just praying to God that they won't tell me it is condemned."
Seth Hart, Margie's 10 year old great grandson removes, a piece of skirting from her home on Tuesday afternoon. Cwalina's home was
flooded and she had to be evacuated on Monday night during the heavy downpours that hit our area.