MANDATA - Flooding in Northumberland County did not end with the cresting of the Susquehanna River.
A thunderstorm that began just before midnight Friday produced torrential downpours that took Fiddler's Run over its banks and into about a dozen homes in this tiny village on Route 225 a mile north of Line Mountain High School, leaving a path of destruction in its wake. At about the same time, less than a mile downstream where Fiddler's Run and Route 147 cut through a narrow hollow en route to Herndon, residents and emergency responders described a "tidal wave" of water 3 or 4 feet high washing up the highway, forcing a responding Herndon Fire Company engine into reverse.
At the home of Andrew and Sandra Moore, which perhaps suffered the most extensive damage, five vehicles were pushed around by the water - including a four-door Honda sedan that was knocked out a side wall of their garage and ended up lodged between a tree and the creek bank about 200 yards downstream. The Moores fled from their home in chest-high water and climbed up a 6-foot bank onto the highway, still not out of the flood waters but safer than in their home.
The unprecedented flash-flood left affected residents and others from the greater Herndon-Dalmatia community in disbelief Saturday morning. Route 147 between Herndon and Mandata remained closed because of washouts at the edge of the highway and concern for the integrity of small bridges; by early afternoon, both 147 and 225 remained littered with debris as people walked along the receded creek searching for possessions; mud covered the parking lot at Jones Hardware; a pop-up camper was stuck in the guardrail at a bridge abutment in Mandata; a utility pole, apparently snapped in half by the force of the water pulling at a guide wire, dangled on a hillside near the creek, wires still attached.
With all that, there were no reported injuries to any residents or motorists, which was nothing short of amazing to Craig Gilligan, chief of Lower Mahanoy Fire Company in Dalmatia, who assumed command amid the midnight craziness. He acknowledged Saturday morning that, as he and others made their way up Route 147 toward the homes in the hollow the night before, they were extremely concerned.
"We didn't think people got out," he said. "We were expecting to find bodies."
The rain begins
Meteorologist Bruce Budd said the National Weather Service (NWS) issued a flash-flood warning for the Herndon-Rebuck area at 12:20 a.m. Saturday as a slow-moving band of thunderstorms sat over southwestern Northumberland County. He said the storm was expected to dump 2 to 3 inches of rain, but he didn't know Saturday how much had actually fallen in the Herndon area. The highest total recorded by NWS was 1.70 inches at Selinsgrove, but one Herndon-area resident recorded 3.88 inches overnight and another recorded 5 inches in a 90-minute period around midnight.
It was raining extremely hard when Gilligan left his home in Herndon for a pump detail in Dalmatia at 11:36 p.m. Friday. Ironically, he drove through the hollow on 147 where, about a half-hour later, the flood waters would be raging. At that time, all was well.
Sandra Moore thinks it was about midnight when her son, Christopher, who had been in a hot tub on the back porch, woke she and her husband and said the creek that cuts under Route 147 at their driveway and flows behind their home was flooding. Having never had more than a foot of water in their basement before, the Moores were panicked as the water filled the basement and came into the first floor. The four of them, Andrew, Sandra, Andrew Jr., 21, and Christopher, 19, fled into their front yard through about 4 feet of water and up onto the highway, where they would be stranded for the next three hours in their wet clothing.
"This all happened in 15 minutes. It was like a big tidal wave," Mrs. Moore said with disbelief Saturday morning, standing in her backyard amid a layer of rocks and mud, two of the family's vehicles smashed together behind her. "We were fine the past four days," she said in reference to the historic flooding in the region. "It was just last night it decided to destroy everything."
It wasn't just the height of the water, but the force.
"The house was cracking. The bridge was cracking. Everything was cracking," she said.
The family was planning to stay with Andrew Sr.'s mother, Nancy Moore, in West Cameron Township. They were told by an insurance adjuster their home is likely a total loss.
Much of Fiddler's Run, also called "Cannery Creek" in the hollow, is normally only 6 or 8 feet across at its widest points. It enters the Susquehanna less than a mile from the Moore home near Inch Memorial Field at the south end of Herndon. That area was already flooded from as much as 10 inches of rain that fell from Sunday night into early Thursday, so the suddenly swollen Fiddler's Run had nowhere to dump its flow.
'A wall of water'
Gilligan got the call for a water rescue at the Moores shortly after he got to Dalmatia. He came back north and found the Routes 147-225 intersection flooded with 3 to 4 feet of water at Jones Hardware. In fact, emergency responders from coming in on Route 225 from Hickory Corners and Pillow, couldn't get through, but Gilligan was just north of that point where 147 loops around Gratz National Bank, and he could proceed up the highway.
He slowly drove his pickup truck through the water, which was several feet high, as two other firefighters walked in front. By that time, with no rescue boats able to get to Herndon from Sunbury, a call had been placed for one from Dauphin County. Gilligan also instructed emergency broadcasters to ask for any local firefighters with boats to bring them to the scene.
Meanwhile, Herndon Fire Company's engine was responding on Route 147 from the north. Firefighter Curtis Wray was driving and Lt. Jarrod Shadle was with him when they rounded the bend in the highway past the ballfield and onto a straight stretch near Strohecker Road.
Having made it past the flooded ballfield, they thought they'd be clear to reach the scene. That's when they saw a "wall of water and debris coming at us" about 30 yards away. Shadle's thoughts at that moment?
"You can't put this in the newspaper, but 'holy s..," he said.
Wray threw the truck in reverse and began to back up the highway. Just before the ballfield, they were able to back into a pull-off spot on the west side of the road and get turned around. As they drove north, the water was right with them.
"The lights on the side of the bumper were flashing in the water," Shadle said.
When they reached dry ground and opened the fire truck doors, water ran out, he said. He estimated that was just after midnight.
Fiddler's Run pushed water levels some 2 feet above the guardrail at the ballfield, higher than at any time during this week's river flooding, Shadle said.
'Craziest thing' ever
Gilligan said as quickly as the water rose, it fell. Still, firefighters went to all of the dozen or so homes in the hollow to check on the welfare of residents. Firefighters found the Moores on the highway as they worked their way north.
Some people were sleeping, unaware of what happened, the chief said. At one house, on the other side of the highway just north of the Moore home, no one could be found inside after several checks. Then, out of the darkness, firefighters heard yelling coming from the wooded hillside behind the home, where the family had fled to escape the water.
Fatigue evident from yet another night with no sleep on this long week of flood detail, Gilligan was nonetheless clear about what he had witnessed the night before.
"It was the craziest thing I've ever seen," he said.
Road closed
About noon Saturday, PennDOT employee Gene Harto parked a large dump truck sideways on Route 147 at the bridge near the Moore home, a more formidable blockade than the road closed signs at the Hut Restaurant to the south and at the ballfield to the north.
Donald Kauffman, foreman at PennDOT's Dornsife stockpile, said that bridge had been inspected, but he wasn't certain of the results. It was already scheduled for replacement, and the fresh damage may prove too much to have it reopened, he guessed.
Kauffman, who recorded 2.4 inches of rain overnight at his home east of Rebuck, said Route 147 at the ballfield was opened just before he went off shift at midnight Friday. Ironically, that was about the time Fiddler's Run was reaching what some described as a tsunami-like condition.
"Through all the flooding I've seen, Agnes and the last few days, this tops it all for small-stream flooding," Kauffman said.
Fred Williams, 78, who lives on the other side of the creek from the Moores, in the first house in the hollow from the south, said Agnes did more damage, but the water wasn't as high then as it was this time. Williams, who has lived at that location his entire life, said Fiddler's Run seems to come up quicker with each passing year as more areas are developed and paved.
Notes:
- Reports that the Wilhour family had lost cattle from their pasture near Routes 147 and 225 are untrue. Dartha Wilhour said the small group of three mothers, three calves and a bull had been separated at one time, but were OK. The calves, about 2 months old, were found under a corn crib in the morning, scared to come out. The Wilhours recorded 5 inches of rain in 90 minutes at their home about a mile from the intersection.
- Shaffer's Venison Farm shop in the hollow near the Moore home had 4 feet of water in the lower level. The flooding affected about a dozen homes in the hollow.
- Gilligan, in trying to have Rescue Boat 536 dispatched from Sunbury, was told conditions at points south of the city were worse during the flash flood than during the river flooding.
- There were reports of small stream flooding in Dalmatia as well, including along Hickory Road where at least one private driveway bridge was washed away and others damaged. A tiny stream that runs along the road had expanded to what one neighbor estimated was 70 feet wide at the peak of the flooding.A PennDOT dump truck, equipped with a plow, blocks Route 147 south of Herndon as nearby resident Fred Williams inspects damage to the highway and a small bridge from a flash flood Friday night Raging waters from a flash flood at nearby Fiddler's Run washed a car out the side wall of the garage at the home of Andrew and Sandra Moore south of Herndon late Friday night. Neighbors and emergency responders examine conditions along Route 147 south of Herndon from Friday night's flash flood. The home of Andrew and Sandra Moore along Route 147 south of Herndon is likely a total loss after Friday night's flash flood, which brought waters into the first floor, broke apart the garage and moved five vehicles, including one that washed 200 yards downstream. Debris is seen on Route 225 near its intersection with Route 147 in Mandata Saturday afternoon, the result of flash flooding late Friday night. One report was that up to 4 feet of water was in this area at the height of the flooding. A pop-up camper and debris are lodged along guardrail at a Route 225 bridge in Mandata from Friday night's flash flood. Debris, including a lawn mower, is piled along a guardrail on Route 3016 in Mandata from Friday night's flash flood. Donald Kauffman, left, of Rebuck, foreman at PennDOT's Dornsife stockpile, and co-worker Jody Vincenzes, of Atlas, walk down Route 147 Saturday to survey damage from a flash flood. Donald Kauffman, left, of Rebuck, foreman at PennDOT's Dornsife stockpile, and co-worker Jody Vincenzes, of Atlas, walk down Route 147 Saturday to survey damage from a flash flood.