After a very wet August, Irene hit the East Coast. In our neck of the woods, we did not have much damage. We were without electricity for two and a half days. Nothing major lost. Other people closer to the river and the many many streams and creeks in Bucks county were not so lucky. Basements were filled with water. Surprisingly, many of the businesses located along the river were sparred. The river did not go quite high enough. Until the last storm. September 7th and 8th gave us a really good rain. Up the waters went. I’m not sure what the river level was from Irene, but this time it hit 16.14 feet. 13 feet is flood stage in New Hope. So, yes, it was flooded. Not as bad as other floods, but as Nick pointed out to me, 5 of the top 16 floods in recorded history happened in the past 10 years. September 8th ranks around #9.
View of bridge, water lapping at the top of the piers
Taken from the PNC parking lot, the New Hope-Lambertville bridge is just making it above the water. The top of the piers is 17 feet. Only 7 floods in recorded history have covered them.
Lambertville banks completely covered with water
High waters, flooding the river front of Lambertville
Close up shot of the piers and the water consuming them
The bridge was closed for most of the day, of course. The water was fast-moving. Large logs zoomed past.
Our duck-feeding station, submerged
This is the park where we feed the ducks and swans. The railing is completely under water. The lamp posts are at the entry of the park. There is usually a big drop down to the river when standing at the railing. Not today.
Parking lot filled with water on River Road
I had to put this picture in full size so you could actually see the cars. This was taken standing on River Road.
Canal with strean cutting through it in Center Bridge
This was a few days after the flood in the next town north of New Hope. This creek routed itself straight through the canal. There was a water fall on the other side of the tow path that went down into the river. I couldn’t get a shot of it, though. It could only be seen from the Jersey side behind a bunch of trees.
The river is high, but not flooded
Okay, last photo. This was taken in the winter (of course) from the “duck feeding area.” This just gives an idea of what the bridge normally looks like, even though it is very high at this point (this was following many snows that had melted).
It looks like things should be drying out this week. I’m ready to move on from the rain and get outside to enjoy this weather! Stay posted for homeschool posts and music posts! Thanks for reading 🙂
~Erin
P.S. For photo posts, like this, are the medium pictures okay or does the full-size work better? Just for future posts…
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