(USA TODAY) - Rivers and streams swollen by days of torrential rainfall across the Northeast overflowed their banks Wednesday and forced more than 200,000 people from their homes from Maryland to New York. Thursday morning they were given the all clear to return.
At least 12 people were killed in flooding that was among the worst in memory in parts of Pennsylvania and Upstate New York, and authorities worried that some rivers would not crest until sometime Thursday.
"The next 12 to 15 hours will tell whether this is a full scale disaster," Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell told CNN.
Wilkes-Barre in northeastern Pennsylvania was one of the hardest-hit areas, and 200,000 residents ? more than half Luzerne County's population ? were ordered to evacuate as a precaution. Rendell and other officials said the Susquehanna River was approaching the tops of 41-foot levees that protect the city.
Governors declared states of emergency in parts of Virginia, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
Heavy rains have drenched much of the Northeast since Friday. As of 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, 3 to 8 inches of rain had fallen over the previous 24 hours in areas of Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia and Delaware, and up to 12 inches had fallen in areas of Maryland and eastern Pennsylvania, according to the National Weather Service.
Although the heaviest rain moved out of the area Wednesday, streams were still rising from the runoff, and forecasters said more showers and occasional thunderstorms were possible along the East Coast for the rest of the week.
In Binghamton, N.Y., the Susquehanna was lapping over the top of a flood wall built after a flood in 1936, Assistant Fire Chief Brian O'Loughlin said. More than 1,000 families were ordered out of homes inside the city of about 50,000, and thousands more were evacuating homes in the surrounding area.
"It's the most serious flooding that any of us have ever seen," he said. "I've been here 28 years."
About 6,000 homes were ordered evacuated in the entire Broome County area, which includes Binghamton, said Darcy Fauci, executive assistant to the county executive. "We lost just about everything ? the cars, the clothes, even the baby's crib," said James Adams, who evacuated his home near Binghamton after his family's shed floated away and their cars were submerged.
The floodwaters destroyed homes and businesses along the river. Several homes could be seen floating past the city, Fauci said. Water was still rising on the Chenango River, which meets the Susquehanna downstream of Binghamton. An undetermined number of people were unaccounted for, she said.
The weather was blamed for four deaths each in Maryland and Pennsylvania, one in Virginia and three in New York, including the two truckers.
Two truck drivers died on Interstate 88 near Binghamton when their rigs plunged into a 25-foot-chasm opened by waters from a swollen creek. The gap cut all four lanes of the highway.
In Maryland, about 2,200 people were ordered to evacuate their homes in Montgomery County because of fears that an earthen dam on Lake Needwood could buckle under the weight of a water level 25 feet above normal.
Geneva Shavers, 73, of Rockville, was among a handful of people who sought safety at a Red Cross shelter at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda.
"In all the years I've lived there, I didn't even know there was a dam," she said. "I'm sure I'll get back to my apartment when it's all over."
Other rivers that were at high levels and endangering communities included the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia and the Delaware River, which separates New Jersey from Pennsylvania.
Flooding closed many roads in the Philadelphia area, including the Pennsylvania Turnpike. More than 1,000 people left low-lying areas of Trenton, N.J., and the city's water filtration system was shut down because of flood debris.
In Washington, parts of the nation's capital remained flooded and entire departments shut down as the Fourth of July weekend approached.
The National Archives, the IRS and the Justice Department were all closed by flooding. Visitors were disappointed to find the Smithsonian Institution's museums and the National Gallery of Art closed. Archives officials brought in large dehumidifiers to protect its collection of historic government documents, from the Declaration of Independence to the Watergate tapes.
Water in the basements damaged air-conditioning and electrical systems, said Mike McGill, a spokesman for the General Services Administration, which manages federal buildings.
"The threat to the records is not floodwater, but humidity from the lack of air conditioning," spokeswoman Susan Cooper said.
By William M. Welch, USA TODAY
6/29/2006 1:19:26 PM
