Storm gives way to rising water

Following last week’s snowstorm, an ice jam on Salt Lick Creek in Hallstead caused water to spill over its banks and threaten homes located on Route 11. PHOTO COURTESY JEN WITBECK

Following last week’s snowstorm, an ice jam on Salt Lick Creek in Hallstead caused water to spill over its banks and threaten homes located on Route 11. PHOTO COURTESY JEN WITBECK

Last week’s late winter storm Stella dumped about 30 inches of snow over much of Susquehanna County.
The blizzard quickly blanketed the region in the early morning hours of Tuesday, March 14, and kept up throughout the day into Wednesday, March 15.
School districts in the county canceled classes for much of the week, and many businesses closed Tuesday and Wedneday.
PennDOT went on round-the-clock-duty beginning Monday, March 13, with the goal to keep roadways passable. The interstates and expressways took priority over lower volume routes.
According to the National Weather Service in Binghamton, N.Y., lake effect snow bands formed on Wednesday producing even more snow across the area while people began digging out.
While snow removal was a top issue for many on Wednesday, some residents in the Hallstead area were also battling rising water.
Flooding began Wednesday along Salt Lick Creek, which runs parallel to Route 11 just south of Hallstead, according to resident Jen Witbeck. Water, on top of the snow, was entering the carport at her Route 11 home.
The rising water was apparently caused by an ice jam on the creek.
Susquehanna County Emergency Management worked with Great Bend Township supervisors to secure emergency permits from the Department of Environmental Protection to clear the jam on Friday and water levels decreased over the weekend.
But Witbeck says the flooding issues are not new.
Neighbor Larry Vincent has lived in his home for 28 years. “It gets inundated every time it rains,” he said. “It was never this way until the floods.”
Witbeck and Vincent said they have gone to meetings about the situation.
Vincent said there are no banks on the one side of the creek. “No one wants to do anything,” Vincent said. He would like to see the bank restored to the way it was before the flood in 2006.
The area behind the homes used to be filled with pine trees, according to Vincent. He said they all died off after the floods in 2006 and 2011. Water pools on the land during a wet summer, and in dry summer month, the soil remains wet, the residents said.
“Come in here and just clean it,” Vincent said, “…just clean the damn thing.”
Witbeck says that at this point she and her husband are considering putting their home up for sale. They have lived there for the past 11 years.
While clearing the ice jam on the creek alleviated the residents’ immediate concerns, they remain concerned about the potential for future flooding from snowmelt or rainstorms.
According to NWS, the storm produced 24 hour record snowfall at the Greater Binghamton Airport where 31.3 inches of snow fell between March 14 at 3 a.m. and March 15 at 1 a.m. The previous record of 23 inches was set in February 1961.
The single storm produced as much snow as there was in the entire 2015-16 season, according to NWS. Last year was a record low snowfall.

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