Lancaster braces for another round of rain after major flooding Tuesday [update] | Local News

Residents in Manheim Borough wandered the muddy streets Tuesday morning after receiving what some said was the worst flooding they have ever seen in the area.

The flooded Chiques Creek, which runs through the borough, brushed the tops of nearby bridges and poured over others as it carried away debris such as a children’s basketball hoop and plastic work buckets.

Cars parked along South Main Street had mud marks at least a foot-high on their bumpers, marking the water line where it was parked when up to 6 inches of rain fell on the area Monday evening into Tuesday morning resulting in torrential flash floods.

The flooding reached across the whole county, with reports of residents trapped in cars, flooded bridges and water rescues peppering dispatch logs Monday night.

While Manheim Borough and the rest of the county recover, there will not be much relief as another round of rain is expected Tuesday night, worsening already dire conditions.

The deluge

Thousands of residents lost power, dozens of roads were closed, and emergency services worked nonstop overnight during the storms.

Millersville University Weather Information Center Director Kyle Elliott said most of the county saw 1½ to 2½ inches of rain, but some areas in the north received much more. Lancaster Airport reported 3.68 inches overnight, and Elliott said Manheim Borough was in the “bullseye” of the heavy rain, getting 5 to 6 inches last night.

First responders traveled to more than 100 flooding-related calls from 6:38 p.m. Monday through Tuesday morning, according to dispatch logs from Lancaster County-Wide Communications. Most emergency calls came from Manheim Borough and East Hempfield Township, where dozens of roads remained closed Tuesday.

A bridge on Evans Road in Lititz was destroyed in the flood, closing surrounding roads. Emergency crews pulled out rescue boats to pull residents from their stalled-out vehicles.

The Conestoga River rose from 5 feet to just more than 12 feet in a matter of 16 hours, is in a minor flooding stage, and is continuing to rise, according to the National Weather Service.

Other major rivers in the county saw minor increases as well but have not flooded, according to NWS reports.

Power outages peaked overnight, with around 1,200 customers reporting blackouts in Lancaster County on Monday night. As of noon Tuesday, just more than half of the outages have been resolved, with more than 500 customers still in the dark.

More rain is forecast to come to the county. The National Weather Service in State College issued a flood watch Tuesday that will run from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m., warning residents of more flash flooding as more thunderstorms pass through the county. It said up to another inch of rain is possible.

Elliott said he expects damaging wind gusts of 55 to 65 mph, bringing down trees and power lines, and that flooding is possible again Tuesday afternoon. He said the most recent comparable storms were reported 19 years ago in late June 2006 when Millersville received more than 13 inches of rain that month, eight of which fell overnight. There was major flash flooding across the county.

Skies are forecasted to clear after Tuesday evening’s storm, with sunny forecasts through the Fourth of July weekend.

The morning after

Rachael Charnock, 31, and her 6-year-old daughter Lilah were in Harrisburg when the rain began. By the time they made their way back to their home on the 300 block of Elwyn Terrace in Manheim Borough, the streets were flooding and roads were closing.

Charnock said the sump pump in the basement failed and there is 3 feet of standing water she and her mother and husband are trying to bail out. She said it was the worst storm she has seen in her six years of living in the home.

Lilah said she lost sleep from the thunder saying, “It was like going to bed after watching something scary.”

Across the street from the Charnock home parking lots were littered with displaced dumpsters, stray cars and refuse of all kinds. One home had more than a foot of standing water in the backyard as one hose steadily bailed water out the flooded basement.

Wesley, a tow truck driver for EAS Towing, said he was on his third flooding call of the morning by 10 a.m. in Manheim Borough and had at least three more in his sights straight after. Trying to tow a washed-out truck off Oak Street, he could not find a safe way to the vehicle and had to circle the borough to get past the flooded tributary to Chiques Creek.

Feleen Nancarvis, executive director of Lancaster’s Meals on Wheels off Columbia Avenue in the city, said while her building did not see much flood damage, the dumpster out back ended up in the Little Conestoga Creek that runs just west of the building.

While operations continued as normal, she spent the morning watching the dumpster slowly slide down the bridge it was trapped against as she made calls asking whose responsibility it was to get it out of the stream.

She said as the water level receded, the dumpster kept getting closer to floating away.

Lititz Springs Park saw major flooding as well only three days ahead of the planned Fourth of July celebration. Event coordinator, Kellye Martin, said despite the rain and forecast, the event is still scheduled to happen.

“The show will go on,” Martin said. “We are used to being hit hard by these storms … We have seen it flooded before, and we have seen it recover.”

She said planners will reevaluate the fireworks celebrations Wednesday morning, but even with incoming rain, she said it likely only delayed decorations for the celebration.