Flood-damaged NEPA still rebounding

Sept. 07--Three years ago this week, Judy Barone sat in a car parked on high ground watching household objects float out of her West Pittston home.

Bloated to a record 42.66 feet from Tropical Storm Lee, the muddy Susquehanna River tore through her immaculate, one-story Susquehanna Avenue residence, blowing out a new 18-foot-wide garage door and destroying treasured belongings.

Seven borough apartment buildings she owns also were hit by September 2011 flooding, but Barone didn't look for pity.

Years of rebuilding haven't diminished her upbeat, survivor attitude, though she admits she won't be able to keep it up if the Susquehanna strikes again.

"This is really a great place to live, and we're happy to be back home," she said.

Today marks the anniversary of the initial warnings trouble was coming. Communities along the Susquehanna received notice in the morning they were facing a flood close to 1972, when the river rose a memorable and destructive 40.91 feet.

The river projections were upped to 41 feet by that afternoon, with the crest expected sooner, preventing many in properties not protected by the Wyoming Valley Levee from saving their belongings.

An estimated 1,500 buildings in Luzerne County from Duryea to Nescopeck were flooded, causing tens of millions of dollars in damage.

The 65,000 residents protected by the levee fared better because the flood control structure held, thanks largely to reinforcement to stop seepage leaks that sprung up in several locations.

Much of the visible evidence of the flood is gone:

-- The levee's battle scars were repaired.

-- Temporary flood trailers were hauled away.

-- Many homes and businesses have been reoccupied.

-- Demolition of more than 100 residential structures is underway, and more tear-downs are in the works.

"If you're driving down River Road today, you wouldn't even realize flooding occurred," said Plains Township Emergency Management Coordinator Charles Krommes. "We're really progressing in our recovery."

Barone relishes the sense of normalcy returning to her neighborhood. The next-door neighbors on one side are back in their remodeled home, and the property on her other side is slated for demolition in a flood buyout.

Refurbishing the Barone family homestead was on the back burner because she wanted to concentrate on repairing apartment buildings so tenants could return. Several rooms in her home still require work.

Barone also added another flood-damaged commercial property to her inventory last year, purchasing the Wyoming Avenue property that had been occupied by Antonio's Pizza, which plans to return to the location after the building is remodeled, she said.

An opportunity

The flood provided an opportunity for Amanda Littzi and her boyfriend, Michael McAndrew, to become homeowners.

They bought a flood-damaged, 1,250-square-foot home on Chittenden Street in Duryea for $15,000 last year. The home is assessed at $76,800.

The structure was among 139 low-lying borough properties that flooded when the Lackawanna River backed up in 2011, unable to drain into the swollen Susquehanna.

Littzi wasn't living in the area at that time but was shown pictures of the destruction by neighbors who lived through it, often like zombies losing sense of time as they hauled out the entire contents of their homes, tore out flooring and scraped and scrubbed away flood mud.

The couple and their two daughters moved into their home in July 2013 after gutting the structure, moving walls and rebuilding.

"We made it our own," she said.

Most of the homes on her street have been repaired, at least on the outside, though Littzi said she won't be lulled into complacency.

"We definitely have flood insurance," Littzi said.

'Can't take it'

Though it breaks his heart, David Solovey is trying to sell the Plains Township auto repair shop -- Solovey's Service Station -- opened by his late grandfather, Aksenty, in the 1940s.

"I can't take it anymore," he said of the flood experience.

Solovey received a fraction of the $190,000 in damages from flood insurance after the government depreciated the worth of the contents, he said. Most documentation on the auto repair equipment was swept away in the flood, forcing him to contact suppliers to reconstruct paperwork needed for his insurance claim. The insurance requirements were "mind boggling," he said.

The financial loss and physical and emotional toll from rehabilitating the property have drained Solovey, who points out a 2011 flood water line several feet higher than the nearly 6-foot mark left in 1972.

By the time authorities upgraded river level forecasts in 2011, it was too late for Solovey to save the building contents because the water on River Road already was 3 feet and rising.

The service station also feels different with the death of his uncle, Stephen Solovey, who was an outspoken fixture there, he said. Stephen Solovey, who lived next to the service station, died in July 2012 in a temporary flood trailer a day or so before he was to move back into the repaired home he had built with his wife in 1964.

Solovey's Service Station had become a gathering place over the decades, with motorists often pulling over to catch up on the latest happenings, Solovey said. Several friends stopped by when they spotted his vehicle parked there one recent day.

"This was like the town meeting hall. I remember coming here as a kid, and it was always loaded with gentlemen," he said.

Losing sleep

After years of drudgery fixing up his flood-damaged West Pittston home while struggling with medical issues, Mike Aufiere said he no longer has a sense of being underwater.

"I'm finally feeling healthy again," Aufiere said recently as he stood outside his pink Victorian on Philadelphia Avenue, which had 2 feet of water on the first floor in 2011.

While the interior restoration is complete, Aufiere said he has to muster up the money and motivation to scrape, repair and paint the exterior. The exterior had been repainted two years before the flood.

"All of our savings are gone," said Aufiere.

Aufiere is hesitant to follow the lead of some neighbors who took out loans to fund repairs because their mortgages and repair loans now exceed the value of their homes. Property values have dropped significantly because many buyers won't touch structures that flooded, he said.

He had canceled his flood insurance two weeks before the flood hit, saying his mortgage holder told him it seemed unnecessary. The structure isn't in the high-risk zone that requires flood insurance with a mortgage, and it wasn't added to the danger zone in new revised flood insurance maps. He renewed his policy after the flood, unwilling to take chances again.

Aufiere said his wife and 11-year-old daughter don't want to move, but they've been scrutinizing weather reports since the flood.

"They can't sleep when it rains," he said.

Being mobile

Beckie Kobi tenses up when she recalls watching her husband, Joe, and several of their workers hitching a boat across River Road in Plains Township so they could lift wheelchairs and other merchandise inside their business, Flexible Mobility, to the second floor.

Joe already had risked his safety loading patient files into his van as the water rose near the business, located in the Tuft-Tex Complex.

"It was very nerve-racking. I try not to think about it," said Kobi.

The complex owners swiftly repaired damage, and Flexible Mobility returned several months after the flood. The high-traffic spot outweighs the fear of another flood, she said.

"There was no debate about staying. It's a good location," Kobi said.

But the Kobis will be prepared if the river is projected to rise again, even if forecasters don't expect the water to come close to 2011 levels, she said.

"Everything's coming out next time. It's better to be safe than sorry, and you can't take anything for granted," she said.

Visible reminders

Nick Hnatishion braces himself whenever he enters a flood-damaged home to prepare it for demolition.

"You never know what you're going to find," said the Lehighton resident, who removes oil and asbestos from buyout properties for Sargent Enterprises.

Some of the carcasses have been picked clean by the prior occupants or scavengers, but he often finds contents left exactly as they were when the water receded.

As he scraped off flooring that contained asbestos from a Jenkins Township home in the bowl-shaped neighborhood known as "The Patch," he pointed out a drawer on the floor filled with fine china. Hnatishion surmises the occupants packed it up before they fled but ran out of time.

He recently found baseball cards left in an attic in one local property. The owners of another abandoned furniture, computers, clothes and photographs -- even though these belongings were on an upper floor not touched by flooding.One house in The Patch had a First Communion gown with a veil preserved in plastic, a cross and other religious items and pots and glasses still in the kitchen cabinets.

Hnatishion said he works solemnly. He must listen for creaks or other signs of structural danger but also finds himself thinking about the former occupants. He lost his home and all belongings, including photos, in a fire 30 years ago.

"It's sad. People have been in some of these homes all their lives," he said.

Having faith

The Rev. David Culley has been holding services for his tiny congregation at his Pittston area home and borrowed space at another church since the flood, though he's optimistic the Grace Bible Church in West Pittston will reopen its doors.

"It's a work in progress, but it's work we are definitely committed to finishing," Culley said.

Four feet of water poured into the Race Street church in 2011. The crinkled Bibles left behind were the least of the congregation's worries. A church trustee expressed disbelief at the time when he found the interior ripped up, saying he and others thought everything would be safe because the church only had minor flooding in 1972.

A new heating system and minor floor and electrical repairs have been completed, and pews were dried out in the sun and stored so they can be used again once they are refinished, Culley said.

Church volunteers have continued working on the interior and are in the process of completing borough paperwork needed to finish electrical work, redo plumbing and install insulation and new walls, he said.

Grace Bible has been located in the former residential structure since 1936, he said.

The congregation has dwindled to about seven members because some have died or moved on since the flood, but he expects to add members when the church reopens.

"We miss being in the church building very much, but we are hopeful the building will be usable again," he said.

Changing landscape

Shickshinny Mayor Beverly Moore and Plymouth Township Supervisor Gale Conrad support property owners who choose to accept buyouts, but they're struggling to adjust to the changing landscape as familiar structures -- and their occupants -- vanish.

About 50 homes in Shickshinny and 60 in Plymouth Township will be gone by the time demolition wraps up, they said.

When describing parts of the neighborhood, Moore and her family referenced the people and pets who lived in homes that have disappeared.

"There's a whole bunch of stories that go with all these houses. It's sad," said Moore, who had first-floor flooding at her elevated ranch but isn't budging.

Moore said she monitors two beavers, a family of groundhogs and geese by her home and would miss watching the deer crossing the river to visit a river island.

"Then after I watch the deer, I can run a minute away to the drug store and grocery store. I have the best of both worlds," she said.

Conrad said the empty lots have left "an air of emptiness."

"If you were a lifelong resident, as I am, it kind of chokes you up. You get a little angry that floods have come so repeatedly and sad that it changed the whole culture of life."

The flood was a jarring "life-changing" experience that still haunts many Wyoming Valley residents financially and emotionally, she said.

"We just have to make the best of it. The community will survive."

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