Tunkhannock??? Any Feedback?? (Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, McDonald: houses, theater, living)

[Jungle George]

Hi folks!! Does anyone have any info on Tunkhannock area? I see it's not to far from Scranton/Wilkes Barre. I saw a great home on the Susquehanna & didn't know how the flooding situation in that area is? Any pros or cons?
Thanks & have a great evening!!
Jungle George

[ScranBarre]

Tunkhannock is a gorgeous little village hidden up in the Endless Mountains, about 30-35 minutes from Scranton or Wilkes-Barre. I snapped a photo tour of it, which you can find here:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/penns...-part-two.html

The town has around 3,000 residents and is home to a restored theater, antiques stores, and various other independent business in a traditional Main Street setting (Tioga Street in this case). There is a Wal-Mart just across the bridge from town along Route 29, and, thankfully, progressive locals were successful in their recent efforts to prevent a Wal-Mart Supercenter from locating across the street and destroying the town's rural character. The town proper never floods, as it's on higher terrain, but flooding occurs regularly in some surrounding areas [(portions of Eaton Twp. (Eatonville), Noxen Twp. (Noxen), and Tunkhannock Twp (especially the Lazybrook area)].

I couldn't tell you for sure as to whether or not a home is going to be flood-prone just because it's on the Susquehanna River. Even though this river, overall, is very flood-prone, this property may be on high enough terrain so that only its yard will take on water during flooding. With the current 3" or so of water in our snow pack, all we need is a major sudden rain storm to drop an inch or two with warmer temperatures, and the river will be raging AGAIN, after major floods in both 2006 and 2004.

[Jungle George]

Thanks Paul!! The place we saw looks to be elevated a bit. I'm still waiting for further info from the seller. It's real hard to plan anything set in stone from 1300 miles away!!!

My mom's bedridden & dying of cancer & I take care of her 24/7 so it's impossible for me to fly up at this time. But I'm trying to do as much research as I can in the meantime & learn as much as I can about the surrounding areas of Wilkes Barre.

Hopefully in the near future I'll be more mobile & be able to investigate in person. Thanks for the link!! It looks beautiful!!

Thanks again Paul & have a great wekend when it gets here!!

[rascalbonsai]

I too am looking to move to the area from halfway accross the country and have been doing some research on flooding. Fema.gov and floodsmart.gov are both very useful. On floodsmart.gov you can actually plug in an address and it will tell you what flood zone you would be in. As SWB points out, it can't really tell you how badly a particular house would flood, but at least you get a better idea of the risk. Another thing that I didn't know was that even with flood insurace anything in the basement that isn't used to maintain the house (fuse box,furnace, etc.) is not covered. This means that if you do choose to live in a flood-prone area you may want to think twice before finnishing the basement or storing stuff down there. We've pretty much decided to avoid flood prone areas since the idea of evacuating 2 small children and 3 dogs isn't very appealing. There are some beautiful houses along the river though.

[Jungle George]

Thanks for the links & info RascalBonsai!! I'm familiar with flooding here in Fla but not up north.

Here we live on an island in the intercoastal and are 14 ft above sea level.(considered high & dry here). We've had 26 inches of rain in 2 days & 4 major direct hit hurricanes & haven't come close to flooding. Our soil here is mainly sand so it perks fast.

Good luck with your move & who knows...we may be neighbors someday!!

[KBlasi]

I live in Tunkhannock and love it. Think Norman Rockwell. The downtown has plenty of antique shops and other quaint stores. A trip to Fitze's, The MerryGoRound, and the Old Store are a must.

All homes in the downtown "borough" area are high above the river. However, there are two creeks that run through town that do flood and cause problems.

The majority of homes are fine but when there is flooding, Tunkhannock becomes an island. All the major roads just north, south, east, and west of the town flood over and close down. To me, it's a minor inconvenience for the pleasure of living here.

If you are looking into homes outside of the borough, you may have flooding from the Susquehanna. Lots of rural homes are close to the river.

Tunkhannock has that great small town feel where everyone knows everyone but they have plenty of big-city amenities. We have Wal-Mart, Burger King, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, and they're building a Dunkin Donuts right now.

I would highly suggest lunch at Twig's and dinner at Remington's.

[Phish Head]

Sorry to hear about your mom.

[Jungle George]

Thank you. I've been taking care of her over a year now & it ain't easy!!