Easton and Phillipsburg escaped serious problems after the Delaware River crested just into minor-flood stage Saturday morning.
Record rainfall in the region on Thursday into Friday, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, combined with unseasonably warm temperatures melting the snowpack from the prior week’s storm to send stormwater gushing into area waterways.
The flow pushed the Delaware River above the 22-foot minor-flood stage between 7 and 11 a.m. Saturday before it began to recede, according to the National Weather Service Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service gauge at Easton.
The Delaware River at Easton was forecast to continue receding after cresting just into minor-flood stage the morning of Saturday, Dec. 26, 2020, this graphic from the Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service shows.National Weather Service
The preliminary crest was 22.14 feet, good for 16th-highest on record and about half the worst-ever crest of 44.4 feet during the devastation of Hurricane Diane on Aug. 19, 1955.
In Easton, Mayor Sal Panto Jr. on Saturday said problems were limited to the Lehigh River overspilling its banks and requiring the closure of Lehigh Drive. He said he expected the road to reopen Sunday.
Across the Delaware in Phillipsburg, Mayor Todd Tersigini said he had been monitoring conditions with the town’s office of emergency management and everything was under control.
“Working closely with the OEM on this, I believe everything is in good shape,” he said Saturday afternoon.
Emergency dispatchers in Lehigh and Warren counties told lehighvalleylive.com Saturday morning they were unaware of any flooding or road closures, and Northampton County 911 had only the Lehigh Drive closure to report.
Rainfall at the Lehigh Valley International Airport climate station totaled 2.09 inches Thursday and Friday, including a record 1.53 inches on Thursday that bested the previous mark for Dec. 24 of 1.48 inches set in 2008, according to the National Weather Service. The storm put the Lehigh Valley at 49.94 inches of precipitation for the year, 5.17 inches above the normal 44.77 inches through Christmas.
Visit lehighvalleylive.com/weather for the complete forecast.
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Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com.
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Delaware River at Easton-Phillipsburg crests just into minor-flood stage (PHOTOS) - lehighvalleylive.com
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