Hurricane Diane hit the Lehigh Valley in August of 1955. Living in Little Lehigh Manor, I remember huddling in the house, while the metal garbage cans of the era flew around the neighborhood. My father, whose meat market was on Union Street by the Lehigh River, worked throughout the night. Fortunately for him, his market had an second floor backup cooler, and a small freight elevator. While the retail business district on Hamilton Street is elevated enough to be unaffected from flooding, center city Easton was devastated by the Delaware. The next morning was rather surreal for a nine year old boy. A large willow tree on the corner of Lehigh Parkway South and Catalina Ave. was lying on it's side. Although the Little Lehigh receded quickly, the park road and basin had been flooded. Diane remains a record in flooding and damage. Let us hope it remains that way.
photo from the RoseGallery
binzley: I hear your significant other calls you "The Hurricane?"
ReplyDeleteMM: The what??
binzley: "The Hurricane."
MM: Oh yeah, I get it. Exciting at first, then it ends in disaster.
You know, maybe she should call me Pawlowski
------ slow to respond and not a lot of satisfying results.
MM -
ReplyDeleteJust curious. Has the sewage problem in the parkway been solved yet, or can we expect a little something extra to be left behind after this storm?
How will I ever progress through this approaching Hurricane without the benefit of some wise and compassionate Government Bureaucrat to hold my hand and tell me exactly what to do every second (and provide adequate funding, of course) until the storm passes?
ReplyDeleteI'm so scared!
TYPICAL CONTEMPORARY CITIZEN FINALLY PROUD OF AMERICA
I remember the 1955 flood well as I walked down canal street in Northampton and saw the water break over the bank behind the Hungarian hall and bowling alley. After the water receded (2 weeks later) the water line left in our kitchen was over 5 feet high. We lost everything! The Salvation army was a big help but the Red Cross was more like a bunch of bureaucrats wanting all the information about what our damage was and how much we lost before they would give us a dime. What they finally gave us was a few dollars that my dad used to buy boards to replace one of the bad sections of floor boards in the living room. That was the only time my dad accepted anything free from anyone! The mud was over 9 inches thick and had to be shoveled out by hand from the basement, house and yard. Snakes were everywhere! The good old days!
ReplyDeleteStealth.
stealth, sorry for your family's ordeal. the neighborhood i lived in sits high above the little lehigh, which is in a deep ravine. i do not recall our side of the twin house suffering any damage.
ReplyDelete