Flood — Carbon, Pennsylvania

2011-08-28 · near Albrightsville, Carbon, Pennsylvania

Event narrative

On the morning of the 28th, a 39-year-old man skidded over an embankment and into a tree and died on the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The Aquashicola Creek at Palmerton had moderate flooding and was above its 7 foot flood stage from 1052 a.m. EDT through 935 p.m. EDT on the 28th. It crested at 9.60 feet at 130 p.m. EDT.

Event rainfall totals included 4.46 inches in Palmerton, 3.55 inches in Bowmanstown, 3.32 inches in Jim Thorpe, 3.34 inches in Weatherly, and 2.81 inches in Lehighton.

Wider weather episode

Irene produced heavy flooding rain, tropical storm force wind gusts with hundreds of thousands of outages, moderate tidal flooding along the Delaware River and one flooding related death in Eastern Pennsylvania over the weekend of August 27th and 28th. Moderate stream and river flooding occurred in the Poconos and Lehigh Valley and moderate to major river flooding occurred in southeast Pennsylvania. For many places in southeastern Pennsylvania, it was the worst creek and river flooding since Hurricane Floyd in 1999 or the remnants of Hurricane Jeanne in 2004. Flooding along non-tidal sections of the Delaware River was minor to moderate. There were two direct storm caused deaths: a wind related death in Monroe County and a drowning in Montgomery County. About 500,000 PECO Energy and 420,000 Pennsylvania Power and Light customers lost power in Eastern Pennsylvania. For both utilities this ranked within the top five outages of all time. Preliminary damage estimates were around six million dollars. In addition to property damage, the winds and rains badly damaged the corn crop in southeastern Pennsylvania. The Delaware Water Gap National Recreational Area was closed through Labor Day Weekend (September 5th).

Tropical storm force wind gusts overspread Eastern Pennsylvania during the evening of the 27th and persisted into the afternoon of the 28th. Peak wind gusts averaged around 50 mph. The strongest winds associated with Irene occurred at two distinct times. The first surge occurred during bands of heavier rain during the evening of the 27th and early morning of the 28th. The second peak occurred during the afternoon of the 28th when skies were clearing and deeper mixing of the atmosphere brought stronger winds to the ground. Most of the peak wind gusts occurred at this time. The rain associated with Irene overspread Eastern Pennsylvania during the late morning on the 27th, fell at its heaviest from during the evening of the 27th into the early morning of the 28th and ended during the early afternoon on the 28th. Event precipitation totals averaged 3 to 7 inches and caused widespread flooding. Because the flash flooding and flooding blended into one, all flooding related stormdata county entries were combined into one under flood events. The storm surge of 3 to 5 feet caused moderate tidal flooding along tidal sections of the Delaware River overnight on the 27th. Minor tidal flooding occurred during the high tide cycles from the 29th through the 31st.

In Stroudsburg (Monroe County), a 44-year-old man died when a tree fell on him in his backyard. He pushed his son to safety. Governor Tom Corbett declared a state of emergency for the city of Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority halted all commuter rail service during the evening of the 27th as multiple tornado warnings were issued. Three large shelters on the evening of August 27th in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia International Airport closed at 1030 p.m. EDT on the 27th and reopened on Monday the 29th. In Philadelphia, the storm left thousands without power. More than 500 trees fell in the city, seven buildings collapsed and twenty roads were closed. PECO Energy restored power by August 31st.

The highest wind gusts recorded during Irene were 57 mph in Mount Pocono (Monroe County), 53 mph in Allentown (Lehigh County), 52 mph at the Philadelphia International Airport (Philadelphia County), 48 mph in Reading (Berks County), 46 mph in Coatesville (Chester County), 45 mph in Northeast Philadelphia (Philadelphia County), 44 mph in Pottstown (Montgomery County), 44 mph in Newbold (Bucks County) and 40 mph in Quakertown (Bucks County). The high tide in Philadelphia reached 9.89 feet above mean lower low water during the early morning of the 28th. Moderate tidal flooding begins at 9.20 feet above mean lower low water.

Hurricane Irene formed east of the Leeward Islands on Saturday the 20th. It moved northeast and passed over Puerto Rico overnight on the 21st. As Irene moved off the island, it intensified into a hurricane. Irene just bypassed the island of Hispaniola to its north and then passed over the Eastern Bahamas on the 25th as it reached category three hurricane strength. From the Bahamas, Irene moved nearly due north and slowly weakened to a category two hurricane on the 26th and a category one hurricane on the 27th. Irene made her initial landfall near Cape Lookout, North Carolina at 8 a.m. EDT on the 27th and then proceeded to the northnortheast and went back over the Atlantic Ocean near the Virginia and North Carolina border at 7 p.m. EDT on the 27th. From there Irene paralleled the Delmarva Peninsula and the center passed about 15 miles east of Delaware between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. EDT on the 28th. Irene made her second landfall as a tropical storm on Brigantine Island, just north of Atlantic City, New Jersey at 535 a.m. EDT on the 28th. From there the center of Irene moved along eastern parts of Ocean and Monmouth Counties and was located near Tinton Falls Township in Monmouth County at 8 a.m. EDT on the 28th. At about 9 a.m. EDT the center of Irene passed over New York City.

Irene helped shatter all time monthly precipitation records. In Philadelphia, the 19.31 inches of rain established a new all-time August as well as monthly record. It was nearly half of the normal yearly precipitation total. A new August as well as all-time monthly rainfall record of 13.47 inches was also established in Allentown.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.0200, -75.6200)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 343395. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.