The "Is It Time To Worry Yet?" Story

1996 photograph of the ice along the Susquehanna River.

It was an ordinary day.  Taking photos of the large ice chunks along the shores of the Susque- hanna River in Wrights- ville, York County, Pennsyl- vania.  It was back in 1996 that the ice looked much like it does today and after a few days of thaw and then heavy rains, the small town of Marietta, a few hundred feet upriver and on the other side of the river in Lancaster County, flooded.  

Photo from today.

It was the third worst flood in the history of the Susque- hanna River which is the 16th largest river in the United States.  I was teaching high school at the time and one of our custodians, Dennis, lived in Marietta and his first floor was under water.  The faculty, staff and administration all made donations and the money was presented to Dennis to help with his recovery.  He still lives in the same house and I'm wondering what is going through his mind today as he sees the ice building up along the shoreline.  

Photo of the miniature lighthouse at the
Lake Clark Marina a few years ago.

Carol and I drove along the water's edge looking for a spot to pull over and take a few photos.  Pulled into a parking lot on the side of the road away from the water and stopped in front of the Lake Clarke Marina.  A young fellow exited the marina and as he was walking past my car I asked him a few questions about the river and the ice.  He said in 1996 he and his workers had to quickly move all the equipment from the marina to higher ground before the river covered most of the marina.  That had to be at least 30 feet higher than where we were standing. He said the river rose over 8 feet an hour for a few hours in 1996.  

My photo from today of the same lighthouse.

He also told me he isn't too worried...yet!  There has been ice on the river almost every year with some being worse than others, but this year seems like more.  If we get another real deep freeze for a long period of time as we did two weeks ago, then he will begin to worry.  

Check out the sign along water's edge. Click to enlarge.

My photos will show you the extent of the river ice.  After taking a few photos, we headed back to the Lancaster County side of the river to the town of Columbia, PA. to take a few photos from that side of the river.  This past summer I visited the same location and wrote about the new Columbia Crossing River Trails Center.  We stopped at the same spot and I found that the river was already in the parking lot of the center.  Again, pretty scary!  A few more photos of the river and the old Route 30 bridge and Carol and I were ready to head home.  We both said that we're glad we don't live near the river this time of year, though it is a beautiful area during the warmer days of the year.  Here's hoping the river will recede and not cause damage as it did 22 years ago.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Another view of the ice on the river. 

Not sure if the water is totally covering this building, or if it is just a roof sitting on the ground.

Looking toward the water on the York, PA side.  This is a small park which is filled with water.  The area where the water is located used to be part of a canal system that ran from Wrightsville, PA to Havre de Grace, Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay.

This photo is from 1996 while the next one is from my trip today.  Both were taken on the Columbia, PA side of the river.