MORE: The Lehigh Valley lands in the crosshairs of yet another weekend deluge; Bushkill Park under water
BANGOR, Pa. — Leila Ross’ husband woke her up early Sunday morning after he heard a tornado-like noise coming from outside.
“It sounded like a train. It just roared,” said Ross, who has lived in her Bangor home since 1965. “We’ve had water come down before, but this is the worst flood we ever had.”
- The Slate Belt was among the hardest-hit areas by Sunday's storms
- On Sunday afternoon, neighbors on Messinger and Lower South Main streets were still cleaning up
- No serious injuries were reported
Residents on Messinger and Lower South Main streets were cleaning up what was left of their backyards Sunday after water gushed through, flooding the Slate Belt neighborhood.
It was one of the hardest-hit areas by another round of severe storms that rumbled through the Lehigh Valley overnight.
By Sunday afternoon, most of the damage was cleaned up in Bangor. But around 4:30 a.m. the scene was quite different.
“There were garbage pails, giant pieces of slate, and people’s possessions floating in the street,” said Denise Hawk, who lives on Lower South Main Street.
Around 2 p.m. Hawk and her neighbors were pumping water from their basements and shoveling pieces of rocks that had been washed up onto the sidewalks.
“I woke up because a flash flood alert went off on my phone,” Hawk said.
“We first had to get everything from underneath the cars. There was a grill leaning up against a rental car, things like that.”
While parked SUVs and pickup trucks showed little damage, smaller cars that were closer to the ground had water in the floors and underneath the carriages.
Ahren Eichner and his family got a call from a neighbor telling them to go outside. What they didn’t expect was to see pipes coming up from the yard.
The pipes were installed by the borough around 2019, Eichner said.
The couple and their son are relocating soon — and their house is currently under contract.
“It’s crazy that this happened now right now,” he said. “I don’t know what the borough is going to do about this, but they have to do something.”
Flooding and damage from stormwater in the neighborhood have always been an issue, residents say.
But Eichner, who has lived on Messinger Street since 2018, said the problem is getting worse.
Bystanders snapped photos of his home — where two of the borough’s black stormwater pipes had snapped in half and erupted into a hole that ripped up the grass.
Homes next to Eichner’s had their fences and gardens wiped out during the storm as well as smashed basement windows.
“Never quite seen anything like that,” I just hope that no one suffered too great of a loss,” said Chris Medico.
Medico posted footage of the storm on social media that showed water rushing down Messinger Street.
“We had about six inches of water in our basement,” he said.
Ross’ cat, Mr. Bright Eyes, was not a fan of the noise and woke up her husband by pawing his face, she said.
“We had just come home from vacation and had a 5-by-9 trailer in the driveway. We found it this morning a few blocks down the street,” Ross said.
“Someone down the street said they had four feet of water in the cellar.”
Hawk said the rocks in the streets resembled a “creek pit.
“By the grace of God, we didn’t lose power and everyone is okay. That is the most important thing."Denise Hawk, Bangor resident
“The borough came by picked them up,” she said. “By the grace of God we didn’t lose power and everyone is OK. That is the most important thing."
