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 August 1955. Lehigh River rising by former A&B Meats. The row of houses shown were demolished to make way for a new bridge approach several years later.
reprinted from previous years
I remember this well, I was 10 years old and actually was out picking up hickory nuts that evening, had a difficult navigating the wind on my way home. We could hear the wind and rain all night and in the Am we went out t look at the downed trees, and then the flooding, it was very impressive. I believe it was the biggest flood of this area in history.
ReplyDeleteMy brother and myself spent a lot of time along the river near constitution drive and the Marshall farm. The debris of trees and other things was piled as high as a house around the banks of the river.
We also saw a boat over on the island and one of the older boys actually swam across the river and patched a small hole and navigated it to shore. We carried for hours to the road.
I lived in Wilkes Barre pa in 1955 - the Susquehanna river was unbelievable -
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