Flash flooding impacts Frackville, Gilberton
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SENTINEL PHOTO - Gilberton's Continental and Mahanoy City's West End fire companies pump water off a flooded roadway in Gilberton on August 12, 2018.
By Kaylee Lindenmuth
GILBERTON/FRACKVILLE – Roads in Gilberton and Frackville were obstructed by flash flood waters Sunday afternoon after heavy rains moved through northern Schuylkill.
At 5:46pm, the National Weather Service at State College issued a flash flood warning for most of Schuylkill County, including Ashland, Shenandoah, Mahanoy City, McAdoo, Girardville and Oneida, after two inches of rain fell in two hours in the region. The warning was set to expire at 8:45pm.
“Minor flooding has already been reported in a few areas near Frackville,” the warning read. “With the additional rainfall, Flash flooding is expected to begin shortly.”
Gilberton
At Gilberton around 6:00pm, a reported four feet of water covered Railroad Street in the Gilberton section of the borough.
Fire apparatus from Gilberton’s Continental and Mahanoy City’s West End, with water nearly reaching their undercarriage, pumped water off the roadway and over the Reading and Northern Railroad.
Fire crews from Butler Township were also dispatched to multiple pump details along Long Row Road in Gilberton borough, while Mahanoy City’s 48-25 was dispatched to Railroad Street for a pump detail as well.
Frackville
In Frackville, by 6:11pm, flooding reported in the area of Dutch Kitchen, near Arch and Lehigh, had subsided, though the Little Mahanoy Creek overflowed its banks, flooding Laurel Street near Pennsylvania American Water.
A few blocks away, an area flooded weeks ago flooded once again, with Arch Street becoming a river from Willow Street towards the Elks.
Frackville fire crews closed the roads down until the flood waters subsided.
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