In a bit of much-needed news for communities cleaning up in the wake of Hurricane Irene, the National Weather Service is lowering the level that the Delaware River is expected to crest to just more than 27 feet but communities are still preparing for possible flooding.
By 9:15 a.m. Monday, the river was at 24.8 feet in Easton, below the 26-foot moderate flood stage. It's forecast to crest at around 8 p.m. The Schuylkill River was steadily dropping Monday, below 9 feet.
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The lower levels may be the result of less rainfall as Irene crossed into Canada, NWS meteorologist Lee Robertson said Monday.
Robertson said a number of factors have to be considered in predicting river cresting -- rainfall amounts from Irene farther north, the amount of rain in the Delaware River Basin and whether the creeks and streams that feed it have been varied.
"I'm sure everyone is ready for this flooding to be over with,'' he said.
A spokeswoman at the Northampton County Emergency Management Agency said floodwaters receded enough to allow some roads in the area to reopen overnight but those nearest to the Delaware would remain closed as a precaution until after the river crests.
The spokeswoman, who declined to give her name, said no additional evacuations were planned in the Easton area. However, she said those who evacuated Sunday were being advised to not return home until it is clear how high the river will rise.
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Philadelphia International Airport, which closed to traffic during the storm, was starting to resume service Monday. Flights started arriving again late Sunday night and early Monday, airport spokeswoman Victoria Lupica said, and most carriers expected to return to a regular schedule by Monday afternoon.
The mass transit agency serving Philadelphia and its suburbs, which also suspended service during the storm, was working on returning to a normal schedule Monday, spokesman Andrew Busch said.
All of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority's bus, subway and trolley lines were running, Busch said, but service on four of the 13 regional rail lines remained suspended.
Emerging from Irene, the hurricane that weakened to a storm, Pennsylvania residents and emergency officials kept a close watch on swollen creeks and rising rivers already filled to capacity by an abundantly wet August.
In Allentown, Mayor Ed Pawlowski asked residents to conserve water for the next 48 hours as water main breaks are repaired.
Officials in Easton's Forks Township asked residents living near the Delaware river to leave their homes. Lower Bethel Township emergency management coordinator Marvin McCammon said about 100 people in that community will be urged to evacuate several hours
before the river reaches flood levels.
In several school districts, where the new academic year was scheduled to begin Monday, classes were canceled because of Irene. Among the districts postponing the start of the school year until Tuesday were Easton, Central Bucks, Coatesville, Kutztown, Nazareth and Unionville-Chadds Ford.
Easton Mayor Sal Panto Jr. said it's more than likely the waterfront of the city of nearly 27,000 could be inundated, but as to how far the water may stretch, it's anybody's guess.
The city has flooded before -- five times since 1996 the river has crested over 30 feet, The Express-Times reported -- but the city is ready. No mandatory evacuations have been issued but residents who live in low-lying communities know that it's part of living there.
We've had higher. We've had 37 feet,'' Panto told The Morning Call of Allentown. Optimistically he predicted that flooding would be moderate.
On Sunday it was the Schuylkill, that wreaked havoc, cresting to more than 15 feet in Norristown and inundating homes with muddy water and flooding streets in Philadelphia, too.
"You take the good with the bad down here,'' said Bud Buono, 51, who's lived on the Schuylkill for 30 years. "It's a different breed of people.''
In Philadelphia, the Schuylkill flooded low-lying streets and
crested at 13.56 feet just after 2 p.m. _ below the 15-foot level
that city officials had forecast.
Irene has contributed to at least five deaths in Pennsylvania and left hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania customers in the dark.
Though the skies cleared Sunday -- the sun peeked out in a few places -- the lingering concern remained water and complacency.
Gov. Tom Corbett cautioned that residents across the state needed to be mindful of the risk of flooding.
"We have been very fortunate to this point,'' Corbett said at a news conference Sunday. ``Even though it's clearing up out there, we're not done yet.''
Statewide, about 706,000 people lacked power late Sunday afternoon, according to Ruth Miller, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. The tally included 375,000 PECO electric customers in the Philadelphia area and 230,000 PPL Corp. customers in Allentown and points north.
Some PECO customers may not get their power back for seven to 10 days, according to spokeswoman Karen Muldoon Geus
"We're really working around the clock to try to get our customers back on as quickly as possible,'' she said. "Mother Nature has not been kind to us the last couple of days.''
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