Evacuation order ends for Pennsylvania city

Levees around the vulnerable city of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, held against the swollen Susquehanna River today, ending an evacuation order for 200,000 people.

Other towns anxiously watched as rivers approached record crests that threatened to extend the misery from the East’s worst flooding in decades.

Emergency officials kept a close eye on the Susquehanna early today, but said conditions were improving and that a recently improved levee system was holding back floodwaters. The river crested at just over 34 ft – below expectations and well shy of the top of the 41ft floodwall.

The rain-swollen river began a slow retreat yesterday evening. Officials estimated that at least 50,000 had followed the evacuation order. Most of them were told today they could return to their homes as of noon local time.

Pennsylvania officials were still concerned about rising water on the Delaware River, and more rain was expected today for New York state, where thousands have already fled from rising rivers, swelled by a record-breaking deluge that has killed at least 13 people in the Northeast.

“I think we dodged a bullet on the Susquehanna. … The Delaware is still the biggest problem,” Pennsylvania Gov Ed. Rendell said today on CBS’ The Early Show.

The rains, which began over the weekend, have been blamed for five deaths in Pennsylvania, four deaths in Maryland, one in Virginia and three in New York.

Besides Pennsylvania’s evacuees, thousands of others were ordered to leave their homes in New Jersey, Maryland and New York as rivers and streams surged over their banks, washed out roads and bridges and cut off villages in some of the worst flooding in the region in decades. In the Binghamton, New York, area, an entire house floated down the Susquehanna River.

In New Jersey, Gov. Jon Corzine declared a statewide emergency as floodwaters rose in town after town along the upper Delaware River early this morning. A near-record crest was expected to sweep down the river from north to south today.

New Jersey State police Superintendent Rick Fuentes warned evacuated residents not to return home.

“The sun is shining but the waters are still high. The Delaware is raging,” Fuentes said at a news conference this morning. “It will get better, but it will not get better today.”

Among those ordered out of their homes were Trenton residents Althea Alford and her 75-year-old mother, who were making their third visit to a disaster shelter in less than two years. Flooding in September 2004 and April 2005 destroyed their oil furnace and other basement appliances.

“We’re just praying,” Alford said. “It’s more depressing now because it’s the third time.”

National Weather Service meteorologist Anthony Gigi said the Delaware River was cresting this morning in Phillipsburg at a bit over 36ft – more than 14ft over flood stage. Debris-choked water thundered against a bridge in downtown Phillipsburg and, across the river in Pennsylvania, Easton's downtown was under water.

The Lambertville sewage and dechlorination plants were both under water this morning, possibly contaminating the Delaware River as well as the community’s water supply, said Neal Buccino, spokesman for the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness.

The crest was expected later in the day in Trenton at around 25-and-a-half feet.

That would make it the fourth-worst recorded flood in the city, though less severe than the 28ft or so that forecasters were expecting early Wednesday.