Did we dodge a bullet?
I woke up this morning to good news, that the projected crest for the Susquehanna River at Harrisburg had been lowered to 19.7 feet. That meant no flood in Shipoke and no evacuation. That's what NOAA's flood chart on the Internet showed, but since I no longer trusted its accuracy, I phoned the Mid-Atlantic River Forecast Center in State College to verify. Happily, it was true. The forecaster told me that less rain fell upstate than anticipated. The phone rang and it was my neighbor, Ed Taylor, telling me he'd heard the news on the radio. He was as happy as us, though a bit chagrined because he'd had his carpenter, John, dismantle his new living room bookshelves to save them from what last night was forecast as a major flood. You have to understand that a crest of 29-30 feet, which the city had talked about last night, would have meant about four feet of water in our living rooms at this end of Shipoke.
But I'm not unpacking yet. A projected crest of 19.7 is too close to flood stage for me to be comfortable. The way things have changed over the past 24 hours, and given NOAA's now-acknowledged computer problems, caution is still advised. I'll hope for the best.
The latest is that Camp Lycogis, the Girl Scout camp in Sullivan County where my daughter Elizabeth and three of her friends are this week, is sending everyone home early because of high water. I got a call from the camp about 10 minutes ago explaining that high water from nearby Loyalsock Creek had cut off the campers from all of their activity areas. They were supposed to do whitewater rafting this week, but the water was just a little too white (and brown). Jeff Spangler, one of the parents, is going to pick up all the girls and their gear and bring them back to Harrisburg.
And the Shipoke chutzpah award goes to Char Magaro, who finished serving customers last night at her Bella Mundo restaurant, locked the doors and went home without apparently moving much of anything, not even the glass art by her daughter. Her restaurant was devastated in the 2004 flood. It would have been the same this time whether she moved anything or not. Thankfully, she won't face another disaster like that--as things stand now.