As water recedes, some allowed to return home

WILKES-BARRE - Luzerne County emergency management officials lifted mandatory evacuation orders affecting about 70,000 people around Wilkes-Barre on Saturday as the engorged Susquehanna River receded from a record-setting 42.66-foot crest.

By noon, the water had pulled back to about 31 feet, dropping about a half-foot per hour, said Jim Brozena, executive director of the Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority. Authorities began letting residents back into areas protected by levees by 2:30 p.m.

Officials said they did not know when residents from communities without levee protection would be allowed to return home.

The river remained well above its 22-foot flood stage, but for the first time in days, officials updated their tracking charts on a white board at the county Emergency Management Agency headquarters with a palpable sense of relief.

Gov. Corbett said Saturday that the worst of the flooding in central and eastern Pennsylvania was over and that authorities were entering the recovery phase.

"The people of this state owe a big debt of gratitude to the state police, to local fire, police, and ambulance services," he said. "I also want to note the exceptional work done by the men and women of our National Guard."

He said there were 12 unconfirmed deaths.

In Harrisburg and other parts of central Pennsylvania, officials were working to restore power to several thousand customers. Many roads remained closed.

Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson said a nighttime curfew remained in effect in flood-stricken parts of the city. One person, she said, was arrested for looting in the uptown area.

Across the Wyoming Valley, signs of a cleanup began to emerge.

Trucks hauled several tons of rock and dirt away from the portable metal floodgates used to shore up the Market Street Bridge, a major thoroughfare separating Wilkes-Barre from Kingston across the river.

In Forty Fort, on the Susquehanna's west bank, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continued to monitor sections of levee where geyser-like spouts of water sprang up Friday from the base of the wall. The leaks remained contained, and no further problems were reported.

Rain from the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee swelled the Susquehanna, pushing water levels to nearly two feet higher than the Wyoming Valley's previous benchmark for catastrophic flooding: 1972's Tropical Storm Agnes. That storm's inundation of Wilkes-Barre and its surrounding communities killed 72 people and caused nearly $3 billion in damage.

This time, an enhanced levee system spared much of Wilkes-Barre, even though the river rose higher than the system was built to sustain. Neighboring communities such as West Pittston - which is not protected by a levee - took the brunt of the flooding, affecting thousands of residents.