Hurricane Florence Affects New York State
September 18, 2018 By BOB SCHOENING (Updated February 9, 2021)Powerful Hurricane Florence dumped feet of water on North Carolina and still packed enough wallop to cause flooding as far north as New York, some 700 miles away.
This I know firsthand.
As I was making my way home today from the Binghamton airport in Broome County, I ran into a roadblock on Route 26 in Maine. It was closed due to flooding from remnants of Florence. I turned around and took an alternate route home — raining and in the dark — at 6:30 AM.
But earlier, as we were heading toward the airport, me and my passenger traversed that very section of road that had flooded, just as emergency vehicles were congregating there. I presume the road was closed minutes later.
We got lucky.
Had I encountered a roadblock on the way there instead of on the way back, we might have missed the international flight that my passenger had been planning since March.
(What are the odds of a hurricane affecting your vacation plans? Actually, pretty good if you live on the East Coast! Many people take vacation during hurricane season (June 1 - November 30), and the aftereffects of a hurricane can be prolonged, affect a wide area, and ultimately cause you alter your plans.)
Fig 1 - A Baseball Diamond at Glendale Park in Endicott Flooded by Hurricane Florence
Flooding is not new to Broome or neighboring Tioga County. This time, the village of Owego, which sits on the banks of the Susquehanna River in Tioga County, merely closed its schools and sent everyone home early. But not that long ago Owego was also hit by a so-called 100-year flood in 2005 (Hurricane Katrina), a 500-year flood in 2006 (Mid-Atlantic Flood), and a devastating (you pick the increment) flood in 2011 from Tropical Storm Lee.
Lee destroyed both the Owego elementary school that several family members teach at, and my friend's house in Broome County. The school was razed and rebuilt on elevated ground at a cost of about $70 million. My friend's house, which had muck in the basement and 6-feet of water in the living room, had to be gutted, disinfected, and completely rebuilt inside, which I and many others helped him do.
Fig 2 - The Normally Shallow Nanticoke Creek Lies Just Beyond the Fence
Nanticoke Creek (pictured above) is about 22 miles long. It originates at Nanticoke Lake and drains into the Susquenanna River about a mile from here. There are also tennis courts at Glendale Park. During the 2011 flood, water rose to within a few inches of the top of the court's 10-foot fence.
At 320 million years old, the Susquehanna is one of the oldest existing rivers in the world. It originates at Otsego Lake in Cooperstown, N.Y. and empties into Chesapeake Bay at Havre de Grace, MD. Flooding of the Susquehanna caused the deluges of 2005, 2006, and 2011, but the ancient river could have overflowed its banks a million times before. (Once every 320 years is a conservative estimate.)
Yet scientists think that flooding could become even more frequent and extreme as Mother Earth — the only planet in the universe known to harbor life — heats up from man made climate change.
Here's what you can do about it. (That, plus vote the science deniers out of office.)