The Lehigh Valley landscape became dry and parched last fall into this spring due to lack of precipitation, only to be followed by record-setting rain.
The Valley has seen effects from devastating downpours, flash floods and more as recently as this month, when up to 6 inches of rain fell in areas and flooded roads.
Such droughts and flooding, along with weather events including dangerous heat and tornados, are part of the “new normal,” Lafayette College assistant professor Christa Kelleher said during a news conference for the Extreme Weather Emergency Tour, which is making several stops in Pennsylvania.
The tour stopped Thursday along the Forks of the Delaware at Scott Park in Easton, which experienced three major floods from 2004 to 2006. Besides highlighting the impact flooding can have on the downtown and other low-lying areas, officials hit on how federal policies like rolling back pollution limits, weakening clean energy programs, and attacking agencies that monitor climate and disasters are exacerbating the effects of extreme weather.
“The whole thrust is to advocate for the importance and inherent value in federal, state and local partnerships,” tour spokesperson Patrick Ahern said. “That’s really where it’s trying to emphasize that Easton and the Lehigh Valley can do things as a city and region as best as they can.”
Kelleher offered suggestions for local ways to mitigate the effects of harsh weather. They included sustained investment in local infrastructure such as wetlands, and “forward-looking planning” to keep additional impervious surfaces far from the floodplain, citing concern for a proposed 1 million-square-foot warehouse near the Bushkill Creek in Wilson and Easton.
“We can’t stop development, right?” said Kelleher, who as a hydrologist studies the distribution and movement of water flows. “We have to do it in a smart way.”
Tools and funding needed to combat flooding and other extreme events, including more emergency-warning systems, “are being taken away from us,” Kelleher said. “We must demand change.”
State Rep. Robert Freeman, D-Northampton, said cuts in jobs and programs, including the federal Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, will prove devastating. In April, the government revoked about $3.6 billion in funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency program, according to The Associated Press. President Donald Trump has openly questioned whether FEMA should be shuttered completely.
The Trump administration has cut hundreds of jobs at the National Weather Service, according to The Associated Press. It said staffing is down by at least 20% at nearly half of the 122 NWS field offices nationwide; at least a half dozen are no longer staffed 24 hours a day.
“Having our emergency disaster and weather-related agencies fully functional and able to respond to extreme weather events is critical too,” Freeman said. “Addressing climate change will address the underlining causes of our extreme weather events and serve to mitigate the severity of our weather patterns.”
Ahern said local government needs “more scaled-up support” to better handle climate change. He said people should urge their federal representatives to advocate for dollars and programs to address the issue.
Each speaker at the tour stop in Easton received a yellow rose to acknowledge the flooding tragedy during the Fourth of July weekend in central Texas, when the Guadalupe River poured over its banks, killing more than 100 people, including many children.
“When an event like the Texas flooding happens, then all of the technology in the world is only valuable once it gets into the hands of people who need it,” said Rachel Hogan Carr, executive director of the Easton nonprofit Nurture Nature Center. “And if it can’t get into the hands of those who need it, that’s the gap that we have to fill.”
She said people in communities like Easton “need to take ownership” about emergency preparedness and community response.
Former Bushkill Park owner Neal Fehnel and current managers John and Sue Klein shared firsthand experiences about flooding. Fehnel, who grew up near the Bushkill Creek, witnessed flooding at home as a child, and later while he co-owned the amusement park.
“I don’t have a degree in any of this,” said Fehnel, who detailed how they cleaned off motors for rides and hosed down mud on the park trails. “It’s just from talking to people that we learn what things we can do.”
He developed strategies about what to do when a flood was heading toward the park, which hugs the Bushkill, and how to reopen the park after a flood “as quickly as possible.”
The Kleins said their strategy for the park includes watching the level of the creek, thanks to a monitoring system in Tatamy that keeps tabs on the water’s height.
“When it hits 16 feet, we have water in the park,” John Klein said. “When it hits 15 feet, we start doing prep. Three days after a flood, we reopen.”
The next extreme weather tour stop is scheduled Aug. 13 in Pittsburgh, Ahern said. The Climate Action Campaign has embarked this summer on tours in three other states: Arizona, Georgia and Michigan.
