Look Back: Hurricane Diane floods Wyoming Valley in 1955
Aug. 21—While the Wyoming Valley recalls the 50th anniversary of Tropical Storm Agnes during 2022, another storm system with similarities hit the region in 1955.
This time 67 years ago in mid-to-late August 1955, a storm named Diane visited the valley.
As Agnes was downgraded from a hurricane to tropical storm, so was Diane.
"Wet and worrisome Diane, once a hurricane but now only an overgrown storm, swept into Virginia tonight getting weaker by the hour in her overland journey after eight fierce days at sea," the Wilkes-Barre Record reported on the first page Aug. 18, 1955.
There were no watches or warnings about the possibility of flooding in the Wyoming Valley.
That all quickly changed the night of Aug. 18, 1955 as Diane caused widespread flooding throughout the valley from Duryea to Shickshinny to Blakeslee.
"Hurricane Diane dropped almost four inches of rain on Northeastern Pennsylvania yesterday," the Record reported Aug. 19, 1955.
The newspaper reported heavy runoff flooded mines, closed streets and railroads, washed out bridges and toppled utility poles.
"Traffic stopped on many highways; thousands of homes and cellars inundated," the Record reported.
Hardest hit areas in the valley were Duryea, Ashley and Plymouth.
A fire truck from the Elm Hill Hose Co. #3 in Plymouth responding to a flooded basement stalled on a flooded East Main Street. Several people used row boats in Ashley to rescue people from flooded homes along Ashley Street, and the Lackawanna River flooded the prone areas of Duryea.
"Far more menacing was the heavy downpour in Plymouth described by borough officials as one of the worst within memory. Water cascaded down from nearby hills carrying tons of rock and mud with it depositing debris on Main Street," the Record reported.
The Record of Aug. 20, 1955, reported about damage in Duryea where pumps barely kept up in relieving the flood waters from filling mines.
"The rain-swollen Lackawanna River posed a major threat for Wyoming Valley mining companies yesterday when it broke through a dike in Duryea to dump 200,000 gallons of water a minute into No. 10 Tunnel for 13 hours before state-installed pumps at Twin Shafts were able to overcome the danger," the newspaper reported.
The Lackawanna River washed out the Stephenson Street Bridge in Duryea and flooded more than 100 homes. The family of Charles Koytek on Watt Street were evacuated in the middle of the night as the river weakened the foundation of their house.
When the river receded, the flood left behind rock, mud and chicken cages on Main Street in Duryea.
Two people from Wilkes-Barre were swept into the Lackawanna River when a bridge collapsed. They managed to remove themselves from their flooded vehicle and were saved by a passerby.
"Railroads were hard hit. Train service to Wilkes-Barre was canceled and the Lehigh Valley Railroad alone had 13 washouts," the Record reported Aug. 20, 1955.
The Record reported David Titus, 24, of River Street, Shickshinny, was killed when he came in contact with a 13,000 volt electrical wire blown down by the storm. Titus was helping a woman stranded in vehicle.
Two men drowned while helping a woman from a flooded home in Conyngham Borough.
Flood waters reached two feet on the first floor of St. Leo's Elementary School in Ashley where roads in the vicinity of Solomon Creek were closed for three days due to debris and mud.
Robert Huddy, of Pierce Street, Kingston, a truck driver for Woodlawn Farm Diary Company, was marooned in Blakeslee for three days due to washed out roads and bridges near Blakeslee. Huddy was returning home after delivering ice cream in Newark, N.J.
"Mr. Huddy reached Blakeslee but was unable to travel beyond because of swollen creeks flooding highways on all roads," reported the Record on Aug. 22, 1955.
Residents throughout the Wyoming Valley were advised to boil water for two weeks.
President Dwight Eisenhower flew over the Wyoming Valley declaring Pennsylvania a disaster area along with seven other Northeast states.
