RE: (erielack) FW: Flooding at Del Water Gap station

[Chris Lee <leesome1226_@_yahoo.com>]

It would not have made sense for the DL&W to spend the
extra money at the time to build their tracks away
from the river. Let's look at the stats for the flood
based on Easton numbers.

Flood this past week: Crested at 36.8 ft in Easton.
3rd largest flood on record
Flood in Sept: Crested at 33.45 ft in Easton. Was the
3rd largest flood on record at the time and is now the
4th.

Dr. David Brandes here at Lafayette College figured
that the Sept storm to be the 100 year flood, aka, a
storm that comes every 100 years to a region. Dr.
Roger Ruggles, PE, figured this past storm to be
either the 250 or 300 year flood. However, according
to his data this does not make sense. He said that
historically 100 year floods generally occur with 7
inches of rain. We only got about 4.5 inches during
the storm. He believes that the larger flooding with
less rain is due to all the development in the
Poconos. The runoff from these new developments is
going into the river and not into the ground as it
used to. Therefore, it takes much less water to do
more damage.

The DL&W clearly had great Civil Engineers. It would
have been impractical to move their tracks when they
were only getting the 100 year flood every 100 years.
Today we are getting a 100 year flood and an even
larger one in the span of 7 months. Flooding of this
magnitude was a rare occurance for the DL&W back then
but according to Professor Ruggles is something that
we will see happen more often in the future.

Chris Lee
BSCE 2007
Lafayette College
- --- "Montgomery, Edward T"
<Edward.Montgomery_@_fcps.edu> wrote:
> When you think about it -- the Delaware rarely got
> up to the track level
> around the Gap station or the Gap in general. 
> Floods in 1955, 1984 and
> this year are fairly rare.  The tracks are
> relatively high above the
> river.
> 
> Ed Montgomery
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: erielack-owner_@_lists.railfan.net
> [mailto:erielack-owner_@_lists.railfan.net] On Behalf
> Of Philip Martin
> Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2005 7:49 AM
> To: EL List
> Subject: RE: (erielack) FW: Flooding at Del Water
> Gap station
> 
> That, or lay tracks on Route 80, to get around that
> spot.  What did the
> Lackawanna do when this occurred?  Go out of
> business until the water
> exceeded?  Diesels can't go through water more than
> a few inches over
> the
> rail.  Steamers could get through higher water.
> 
> Philip
> 
> 
> > From: Gary R. Kazin <gkazin_@_yahoo.com>
> > Don't know for sure, there's only one DLW route
> between Slateford Jct
> and
> > Scranton.  Given the flood, it would be a good
> idea to have it on
> higher
> ground.
> 
> 
> 
> 

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