Saturday, September 4, 2021

Andy's Angles: Lee Weekend


 It's coming up on the 10th anniversaty of the flooding triggered by Tropical Storm Lee.

By now, you know the drill.  We get days of rain.  Rivers, creeks, and streams can't hold it all.  They flood.  This one was different than most.  The Susquehanna River hit record levels.

Unlike 1972, the raised levee protected Wilkes-Barre.  West Pittston got hit, and hit hard.

The Susquehanna backed up in to the Lackawanna, and parts of Duryea went under water.

A September vacation is tradition for me.  This year was no different.  I did email the assistant news director at the time and volunteered to come in if the unthinkable happened.  It was bad, but not catastrophic.

While I was curious about the high water, I stayed home.  The last thing you need during a tragedy is a lookie-loo.

After the water went down and the emergency subsided, I went to a store, bought a new camera, and ventured out to see what I could see, while staying out of the way.

The photo above is debris piled outside homes in Duryea.

I've seen flooding aftermath dozens of times before.  It never gets easier.  That's not garbage piled outside of people's homes.  It's memories-- some things that cannot be replaced.

I know we learn from every disaster.  And, one of the lessons always is nature always wins.