The "2011 Flooding Horror" Story

It was an ordinary day. Had just gotten off the phone with Hal, a friend who I taught school with years ago. He was telling me about a trip he had to take a few days before, immediately after the rain had stopped and the flooding had started. He was delivering teeth to the area around Hershey, PA. Same area where the Hershey Chocolate Factory and Hershey Park are located. He described to me how it took him hours to get home because of all the roads closed due to the flooding in the area. He told me that Hershey Medical Center was surrounded by water and the ambulances could not reach the hospital. Swatara Creek came out of its banks and flooded acres and acres of Hershey proper as well as the Hershey Golf Course, Hersheypark, and the ZooAmerica located next to the Park. Yesterday, my friend Bill from Arizona emailed me photos of the devastation. Hersheypark looks terrible. The entrance to the park, with all the small souvenir shops was under water. Many of the rides were covered with water. Much of ZooAmerica was covered. Unbelievable devastation. I heard a new report saying Hersheypark was bringing in a corp of engineers to check on the safety of the grounds under the amusement rides as well as workmen to check on all the mechanical parts of all the rides to make sure they hadn't been compromised. Can't be cheap to do that. I have included some of the photos that Bill sent to me. The first few are from Hershey Medical Center, one from the Golf Course, a few from the zoo, and the rest from Hersheypark. So sad! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.