Post by shadow on Sept 10, 2011 18:47:07 GMT -5
Oneonta, N.Y. —
Roiling water surged over flood walls built decades ago to tame the Susquehanna River, 20,000 people were ordered to head for higher ground and passage through Binghamton was banned to all but emergency officials Thursday as heavy rains pushed swollen rivers to record levels.
“The situation is dire,” Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan told The Associated Press. “It’s the worst flooding in the history of Binghamton at least since the flood walls were built in the 1930s and ‘40s.
Lingering rain from the tattered remains of Tropical Storm Lee swamped the region starting Wednesday, adding misery to a part of the country already sopping from the remnants of Irene 10 days earlier.
On Thursday afternoon, Ryan said a heavy band of rain appeared to spare the city and water levels were rising more slowly than anticipated, a bit of good news but not enough to let the mayor relax.
Dozens of homes and businesses were already flooding and Ryan worried about the concrete flood walls that funnel the river safely around the city of about 45,000 people. If they were to fail, “that could change the whole ballgame,” Ryan said.
Sen. Thomas Libous of Binghamton, told The Associated Press: “The flood walls could give out in the city and we could have a mini-New Orleans.”
All roads in the city were restricted to emergency vehicles and several main highways outside it were closed, effectively cutting Binghamton off from every direction. High-axle National Guard vehicles were used to ferry people and supplies through the city, which sits near the Pennsylvania border at the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango rivers.
“We’ll probably stay closed down overnight to make sure there’s no additional rainfall,” Ryan said. “We’ll open them up as soon as safety permits.”
The Susquehanna was above 25.5 feet Thursday afternoon, higher than the record set in 2006 and headed for a predicted peak above 26 feet by later Thursday.
City Hall had been circled by water and a major new student housing complex under construction at Binghamton University had first-floor flooding, Ryan said. The mayor also said there was a good chance the city’s water treatment plant would get knocked offline, and there were fears that the floodwaters would damage a newly-repaired wall that collapsed at the city’s sewage treatment plant.
In outlying areas, residents were awakened by knocks on the door early Thursday and told to get to safety. Tonia Merrill and her husband Kevin Stone had to leave seven cats behind, three in their trailer home and four outside in the flooded trailer park.
“I’m not holding up,” Merrill said. “I have anxiety and panic and this is not good. I can’t be where I need to be — in my home. My home is my safe zone.”
They were spending the day at the shelter trying to ride out the storm.
Broome County emergency services manager Brett Chellis said people who remained in inundated neighborhoods were being evacuated in public transit buses, but some had to be rescued by boat. National Guard helicopters were on standby to help, if needed, Chellis said.
Binghamton University was serving as an evacuation center and reported about 1,000 people were there Thursday morning. Hundreds of others chased out by flooding had arrived at seven shelters set up across the county, Chellis said.
There were no reports of injuries or deaths.
The Binghamton neighborhoods being evacuated were the same areas where people were forced out of during the 2006 flood.
“We went through a lot five years ago,” Chellis said. “We’re trying to emphasize it’s going to be worse.”
Dozens of evacuees were milling about at a local church center in Oneonta, northwest of Binghamton.
“By seven o’clock (Thursday morning), we got a knock on our door saying we had to leave,” said Kevin Olmstead, a cab driver who had to leave with his fiancie, 10-year-old daughter and other relatives so quickly that he only had clothes, a cellphone and an iPad. “We actually had to tread through the water to get out.”
He was hoping to get back to his trailer by Friday to check on his possessions and his four cats.
The overflowing Susquehanna closed off sections of Interstate 88, which connects Binghamton and the Albany area, and flooded parts of Oneonta, which is home to a state university.
Tom Connelly was camping by the river Wednesday night when the water came up very fast.
“Within a half hour — less than a half hour — it really overflowed its banks and I really almost didn’t have enough time to get out of there,” Connelly said. “By the time I left the tent, the water was within two feet ... I’m sure the tent is long gone.”
Rachel Ainslie-Hamblin was nervously eyeing a floodgate that kept a wall of brown water from washing through her house. Workers had buttressed the gate with mounds of dirt but it appeared water was seeping through.
“It would be nice if the floodgate had been a little more secure,” she said. “We’re in the downstairs wondering if we have to be moving things. We wonder if the dirt is enough or they should be sandbagging.”
About 80 miles downstream in northeastern Pennsylvania, tens of thousands of people living along the Susquehanna were ordered to leave Thursday.
In the Binghamton area and in the Mohawk, Hudson and Schoharie valleys, scores of schools were closed as rainfall totals topped 8 inches in some areas, with more expected.
The mainline Thruway, New York’s most heavily traveled east-west highway, remained open, but Exits 27, 28 and 29 in the Mohawk Valley were closed, troopers said.
In Montgomery County, 30 miles northwest of Albany, the sheriff’s department said only emergency vehicles were allowed on local roads. In Schenectady County, four main bridges over the Mohawk were closed after floodwaters severely eroded the approach to one.
Cross-state Amtrak passenger service was canceled because of extensive flooding near Amsterdam, also on the Mohawk River.
Brooklyn transplant Daisy Rodriguez and her two teenage daughters spent three days in shelters when flooding after Tropical Storm Irene chased them from their home near the Mohawk River. The family spent Wednesday night at a shelter set up at a high school outside Schenectady.
“Everybody was in shock when they said we would have to evacuate again,” said Rodriguez, of Pattersonville.
“We just finished cleaning up after the flood from Irene,” said daughter Edith Rodriguez, 19. “Now we have to start all over again.”
The New York National Guard said it had 130 soldiers deployed in the Binghamton area, with another 200 en route Thursday, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo was expected to tour flood-impacted parts of the city.
More than 740 members of the New York Army National Guard remained on duty responding to weather-related conditions in several upstate counties, including areas initially damaged by Irene.
Source:theleader.com
Hard to believe, I live a few miles from this mess. And got a couple inches of rain. And they got a lot. Look on Youtube for Hershey PA flooding 2011. This past summer, I ate in the same Wendys that is not under water. o.0
Roiling water surged over flood walls built decades ago to tame the Susquehanna River, 20,000 people were ordered to head for higher ground and passage through Binghamton was banned to all but emergency officials Thursday as heavy rains pushed swollen rivers to record levels.
“The situation is dire,” Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan told The Associated Press. “It’s the worst flooding in the history of Binghamton at least since the flood walls were built in the 1930s and ‘40s.
Lingering rain from the tattered remains of Tropical Storm Lee swamped the region starting Wednesday, adding misery to a part of the country already sopping from the remnants of Irene 10 days earlier.
On Thursday afternoon, Ryan said a heavy band of rain appeared to spare the city and water levels were rising more slowly than anticipated, a bit of good news but not enough to let the mayor relax.
Dozens of homes and businesses were already flooding and Ryan worried about the concrete flood walls that funnel the river safely around the city of about 45,000 people. If they were to fail, “that could change the whole ballgame,” Ryan said.
Sen. Thomas Libous of Binghamton, told The Associated Press: “The flood walls could give out in the city and we could have a mini-New Orleans.”
All roads in the city were restricted to emergency vehicles and several main highways outside it were closed, effectively cutting Binghamton off from every direction. High-axle National Guard vehicles were used to ferry people and supplies through the city, which sits near the Pennsylvania border at the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango rivers.
“We’ll probably stay closed down overnight to make sure there’s no additional rainfall,” Ryan said. “We’ll open them up as soon as safety permits.”
The Susquehanna was above 25.5 feet Thursday afternoon, higher than the record set in 2006 and headed for a predicted peak above 26 feet by later Thursday.
City Hall had been circled by water and a major new student housing complex under construction at Binghamton University had first-floor flooding, Ryan said. The mayor also said there was a good chance the city’s water treatment plant would get knocked offline, and there were fears that the floodwaters would damage a newly-repaired wall that collapsed at the city’s sewage treatment plant.
In outlying areas, residents were awakened by knocks on the door early Thursday and told to get to safety. Tonia Merrill and her husband Kevin Stone had to leave seven cats behind, three in their trailer home and four outside in the flooded trailer park.
“I’m not holding up,” Merrill said. “I have anxiety and panic and this is not good. I can’t be where I need to be — in my home. My home is my safe zone.”
They were spending the day at the shelter trying to ride out the storm.
Broome County emergency services manager Brett Chellis said people who remained in inundated neighborhoods were being evacuated in public transit buses, but some had to be rescued by boat. National Guard helicopters were on standby to help, if needed, Chellis said.
Binghamton University was serving as an evacuation center and reported about 1,000 people were there Thursday morning. Hundreds of others chased out by flooding had arrived at seven shelters set up across the county, Chellis said.
There were no reports of injuries or deaths.
The Binghamton neighborhoods being evacuated were the same areas where people were forced out of during the 2006 flood.
“We went through a lot five years ago,” Chellis said. “We’re trying to emphasize it’s going to be worse.”
Dozens of evacuees were milling about at a local church center in Oneonta, northwest of Binghamton.
“By seven o’clock (Thursday morning), we got a knock on our door saying we had to leave,” said Kevin Olmstead, a cab driver who had to leave with his fiancie, 10-year-old daughter and other relatives so quickly that he only had clothes, a cellphone and an iPad. “We actually had to tread through the water to get out.”
He was hoping to get back to his trailer by Friday to check on his possessions and his four cats.
The overflowing Susquehanna closed off sections of Interstate 88, which connects Binghamton and the Albany area, and flooded parts of Oneonta, which is home to a state university.
Tom Connelly was camping by the river Wednesday night when the water came up very fast.
“Within a half hour — less than a half hour — it really overflowed its banks and I really almost didn’t have enough time to get out of there,” Connelly said. “By the time I left the tent, the water was within two feet ... I’m sure the tent is long gone.”
Rachel Ainslie-Hamblin was nervously eyeing a floodgate that kept a wall of brown water from washing through her house. Workers had buttressed the gate with mounds of dirt but it appeared water was seeping through.
“It would be nice if the floodgate had been a little more secure,” she said. “We’re in the downstairs wondering if we have to be moving things. We wonder if the dirt is enough or they should be sandbagging.”
About 80 miles downstream in northeastern Pennsylvania, tens of thousands of people living along the Susquehanna were ordered to leave Thursday.
In the Binghamton area and in the Mohawk, Hudson and Schoharie valleys, scores of schools were closed as rainfall totals topped 8 inches in some areas, with more expected.
The mainline Thruway, New York’s most heavily traveled east-west highway, remained open, but Exits 27, 28 and 29 in the Mohawk Valley were closed, troopers said.
In Montgomery County, 30 miles northwest of Albany, the sheriff’s department said only emergency vehicles were allowed on local roads. In Schenectady County, four main bridges over the Mohawk were closed after floodwaters severely eroded the approach to one.
Cross-state Amtrak passenger service was canceled because of extensive flooding near Amsterdam, also on the Mohawk River.
Brooklyn transplant Daisy Rodriguez and her two teenage daughters spent three days in shelters when flooding after Tropical Storm Irene chased them from their home near the Mohawk River. The family spent Wednesday night at a shelter set up at a high school outside Schenectady.
“Everybody was in shock when they said we would have to evacuate again,” said Rodriguez, of Pattersonville.
“We just finished cleaning up after the flood from Irene,” said daughter Edith Rodriguez, 19. “Now we have to start all over again.”
The New York National Guard said it had 130 soldiers deployed in the Binghamton area, with another 200 en route Thursday, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo was expected to tour flood-impacted parts of the city.
More than 740 members of the New York Army National Guard remained on duty responding to weather-related conditions in several upstate counties, including areas initially damaged by Irene.
Source:theleader.com
Hard to believe, I live a few miles from this mess. And got a couple inches of rain. And they got a lot. Look on Youtube for Hershey PA flooding 2011. This past summer, I ate in the same Wendys that is not under water. o.0