Lackawanna County, Scranton declare emergencies following destructive storm

Sep. 10—Emergency responders and residents of towns inundated by floodwaters worked Sunday to assess the damage and start the recovery process after severe thunderstorms unleashed destruction in parts of the Abingtons and Scranton.

Heavy rain Saturday night swamped Clarks Summit, Dalton, Newton Twp., Ransom Twp., parts of Scranton and South Abington Twp. One person died in the storm, a woman who was not immediately identified pending notification of her family, according to the Lackawanna County Coroner's Office.

As Department of Public Works crews pumped water Sunday afternoon from a section of North Merrifield Avenue, where crews rescued residents by boat the night before, Scranton Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti said the city signed an emergency declaration after sustaining "many millions of dollars" of damage.

"We'll be working with the county (Emergency Management Agency) and hopefully (Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency)," she said. "We're already working with PennDOT. Hopefully, at some point, we'll be able to engage with (Federal Emergency Management Agency) as well. We'd like to get to the point where we're able to have that extra layer of support from the federal government."

Despite extensive damage, Cognetti said the storm didn't turn deadly in the city.

"We're so grateful that there were no fatalities, no major injuries reported and no reports of missing persons," she said.

John Appel, who lives in the 2700 block of Price Street in Scranton, had a close call after power went out for about eight hours due to the storm, his wife, Lois, said Sunday.

"We just made it with the oxygen tanks," she said. "He used up four tanks."

The Lackawanna County commissioners authorized a declaration of disaster emergency Sunday.

Lackawanna County Commissioner Chris Chermak described the storm damage as "devastating."

The county advised residents and business owners to document property damage and send the information to their municipality.

"It's going to help us assist all the other municipalities in getting things they need," Chermak said. "Whatever we need, hopefully this will help."

From major thoroughfares like Northern Boulevard to more rural roads, the storm ravaged the Abingtons.

"Some pretty heavily traveled bridges got taken out," Chermak said. "Down near Eckel's Farm on Falls Road, that one collapsed right into the creek."

Chermak considered heading to the county's 911 center in Jessup Saturday night, but changed course..

"I live in Dalton, and it started to get really crazy," he said. "I wanted to go up to our 911 center and I couldn't even get out of my neighborhood. This is a tough situation because it came out of nowhere. It was almost like a swath of a tornado the way it hit."

Clarks Summit Police Chief Chris Yarns experienced the severity of the storm firsthand while picking up wing bites at Benny's in South Abington Twp. around 7:15 p.m.

"I got trapped in it myself," Yarns said. "I got there, and it was pouring really hard, so I decided to wait a few more minutes before I got out of the car."

He realized the downpour wasn't going to stop. He also discovered it wasn't safe to traveling home after he got back on Northern Boulevard.

"I was driving my own person vehicle — an Explorer — and I heard bumps and bangs underneath the car, maybe logs or rocks hitting it," he said. "I thought I can't do this anymore. I ended up sitting in the Burger King parking lot for about an hour."

The longtime officer hadn't experienced a storm of this magnitude since joining the force in 1990.

"I've seen bad storms ... this tops everything I've ever seen in my life," Yarns said.

Theodore Champney, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said 3.55 inches of rain were reported in the Clarks Summit/Clarks Green area.

"There were probably localized higher amounts," he said. "There was at least two inches in the first hour. It came down very heavy."

Even though South Abington Twp. and surrounding areas sustained more damage, Clarks Summit wasn't spared.

"Center Street was washed away and flooded out," Yarns said. "The borough is going to have to figure out to how to fix it going forward. It eroded the surface — there isn't much left. It has to be rebuilt."

Scranton Fire Chief John Judge praised the work of city officials and his department, who were working at the mercy of the storm.

"The volume of rain that came down ... there really was nothing we could do," he said. "It came so fast and furious and then you had people driving through areas where normally you weren't used to seeing floodwaters."

Even deployments to hurricane disaster areas couldn't fully prepare Judge for Saturday's deluge.

"Some of the things we've heard out of the state agencies is this was a once-in-200-years event," he said. "It's what they consider a .2% flood. No stormwater management design was designed to handle this."

Judge said the department conducted water rescues in the North Scranton and Keyser Valley areas of the city Saturday night. Crews then shifted to conducting initial damage assessment Sunday morning and early afternoon.

"There is a lot to do, and we want to capture this as quickly as possible," he said.

The Red Cross moved its shelter to Elm Park United Methodist Church Sunday afternoon after setting up at West Scranton High School on Saturday night, Judge said.

Cognetti said code enforcement officers have been surveying the damage, and anyone who would like to report damage should contact Scranton 311.

She said the most affected areas in the city were off Lindy Creek and West Mountain, Keyser Valley and Leggetts Creek in North Scranton coming down from the Abingtons.

Mike Carroll, PennDOT's Secretary of Transportation, toured the Abingtons on Sunday and said department crews are working to fix issues.

"We're going to get everything reopened as quickly as possible," he said.

Carroll, along with PEMA Director Randy Padfield, and state police and PennDOT District 4 officials, will provide updates on storm damage Monday at 10 a.m. at PennDOT District 4 headquarters in Dunmore.

Carroll said it's too early to gauge the potential cost for storm-related damage as more evaluations must be done.

"We're still doing bridge inspections for the bridges that are still open," he said. "We have to make sure they're safe and until we have all the inspections of bridges done, I don't want to put a number on it."

Carroll, who was confirmed as PennDOT's secretary of transportation in May, believes more calamitous storms are on the horizon for the state in the coming months and years.

"In my time as the secretary, we've had this kind of storm near Reading, in Northampton County and Bucks County ," he said. "These catastrophic, high-volume storms are coming with frequency. I think it's the new normal."

Contact the writer: rtomkavage@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9131; @rtomkavage on Twitter.