FIRST PERSON | I am located at the east end of Steelton, Penn., for this storm. Steelton is located just outside of Harrisburg. It seems like the rain began Monday and has not stopped since. Steelton is located on the banks of the Susquehanna River. Longtime residents of the area remember several floods, but few as bad as this one is shaping up to be. Granted, The Patriot-News reports the Susquehanna is not supposed to crest until Friday afternoon at 26.2 feet. However, seeing that it is still raining and the water is still rising, it is a scary proposition.
Wednesday morning started with the residents of the low-lying Lisa Lake’s mobile home community in Highspire being ferried out of their homes by fire rescue crews on boats. The water had already risen to dangerous levels and individuals had no choice but to be evacuated. There were possessions people left behind in the water, including vehicles and a full size box truck, now submerged.
While driving around to see the flooding, we heard a friend of ours was forced from her home due to flooding. She had looked out the window earlier, and the water was starting to fill the back yard. A short time later, she looked out again and saw the driveway quickly filling with muddy water. She got out just before the roads in Middletown were shut down to all traffic.
Later that day, according to my friends on Facebook, Elizabethtown began to flood. The Rita’s Italian Ice was even partially submerged. In Hummelstown, not far from the Hershey Medical Center, not only was the local Pizza Hut submerged to its roof, but one wall collapsed. A neighboring McDonald’s, KFC and diner were all partially submerged, but not to the extent of the Pizza Hut.
Here, in the east end of Steelton, the sewers backed up and started to flow into basements, yards and bathrooms. It’s not something you would think about beforehand, but the stress of not knowing if you will be able to use a toilet and flush it or if you will be able to take a shower really does get to you. If you have a police or fire scanner, hearing all the calls for water rescues, building collapses and road closures gives you the impression that things are going very badly. To later hear that the potentially trapped victim in the building collapse was a man who lost his life is chilling.
As the day went on and the rain kept falling, it became apparent that, as the rain comes and the waters flow to the larger bodies of water before ultimately hitting the Susquehanna, roads would flood quickly and could recede just as quickly. Although for a time in the morning there were no roads open to Middletown, later there were routes in and out of the town.
It’s a pretty scary situation. Where I am is on a hill, but the roads out of the area all end at different parts of the same main road. If that main road gets shut down, we are all stuck until that road is reopened. If the Susquehanna River reaches the expected 26.2 feet, the road may be flooded for a long time. To be thinking about the chances of being stranded, without working bathrooms, can keep you up at night.