Lancaster County & Flooding problems (Penn: buying a house, buying, live)

[amsm196]

Hi everyone! I recently read that the state of Pa is one of the worst states in the U.S for flooding problems, but that article did not mention where in Pa, so i'm just curious if there is a flooding problem in Lancaster County? from Rain? Any rivers in that area? when it snows?

Thank you

T

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by amsm196

Hi everyone! I recently read that the state of Pa is one of the worst states in the U.S for flooding problems, but that article did not mention where in Pa, so i'm just curious if there is a flooding problem in Lancaster County? from Rain? Any rivers in that area? when it snows?

I'm not familiar enough with Lancaster County to say specifically, but anywhere in the world rivers and creeks risk flooding. The main problem with Pennsyvlania is that sometimes we get strange weather where it rains too much. When the ground gets saturated, the rain water isn't absorbed into the ground and it runs off hillsides and roads finding it's way to streams and sewers.

This doesn't happen every day or every year. I live near one of the most flood prone areas in western PA, and it floods once every 10 years. The last mass flooding we had in western PA was rain from hurricane Ivan, but the entire eastern part of the United States flooded from hurricane Ivan. Few people outside of eastern US know this because the news coverage was only focused on where the actual hurricane hit.

Last year, eastern PA was hit very hard with the same type of flooding as the result of rain. We haven't had much flooding that resulted from northern ice melting in the spring and coming down river in many decades. Those floods generally aren't very large. The rivers just swell a little and go over the banks where there isn't anything built anyway.

Just watch where you buy property. Even creeks that have a little trickle or that are dried up can flood. Make sure you purchase a house that is elevated from any type of water way (creek, river, gully) even if it's dried up most of the time.

Flooding in PA usually comes from hurricane weather. After big hurricanes hit the golf coast (or east coast too), they continues upward in the form of a tropical storm. When they hit a pressure front up north, the storm stalls in our area and drops lots of rain in one place. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem but if the ground is already saturated from previous rains, then the ground can't hold the water from the tropical storm. This results in flooding because the water needs somewhere to go. It runs off over the top of the earth and hillsides (even the hills on roads etc) heading for low lying areas and eventually making it to streams and creeks to find it's way to rivers. Everything can flood when this happens, even houses up on top of hills if they are in the way of the water that is trying to go downhill. When I was a child, I lived in the highest point in my county (very hilly county) and our house was surrounded by water after a big rain once. But in 40 years, that's the only time it happened to the house where I grew up.

[kitty71]

There can be a lot of flooding in Lancaster county - mainly from what seem like small creeks that swell beyond their beds. This year was particularly bad - but unless you live within a short distance (like a block's distance in most cases) it probably wouldn't affect you. Something to definitely check out when you are buying a house, though!!

[openless]

most properties have to disclose that they are in a flood plain or have suffered flood damage in the past. a lot of areas in dauphin county have re-assessed the flood plain maps, which had not been updated since 1970's. Like Hopes said, it happens every few years, here in this area we only got flooding when Hurricane Jean moved in in fall 2004, In recent memeory. That has pretty much been it, when the snow melts in the spring it can cause minor flooding along the susquehannah river, one of the main bodies of water in pennsylvania.