Flood in Pennsylvania, October 8, 2005

A slow moving cold front coupled with remnant moisture from Tropical Storm Tammy produced periods of heavy rain across the Poconos from the afternoon of the 7th until 300 a.m. EDT on the 8th and again during the late morning into the late afternoon on the 8th. Storm totals averaged between 5 and 10 inches and caused poor drainage flooding. But the dry weather over the previous seven weeks helped reduce the stream and river flooding in the county. The Delaware River did not flood. In Smithfield Township, part of Shawnee Valley Housing Development was evacuated when a mudslide occurred. Baseball fields along the Brodhead Creek flooded. Flooding and mudslides closed Pennsylvania State Route 191 and 447 in Stroud Township. Roadway shoulders were washed out on Pennsylvania State Routes 611, 447, 940, 191 and U.S. Route 209. The only gaged waterway to reach flood stage was the Brodhead Creek in Minisink Hills. The creek was above its 10 foot flood stage from 511 p.m. through 915 p.m. EDT on the 8th. It crested at 10.55 feet at 715 p.m. EDT. Storm totals included 11.00 inches in Saylorsburg, 10.83 inches in Bossardville, 9.44 inches in East Stroudsburg, 9.16 inches in Brodheadsville, 9.13 inches in Tannersville, 6.73 inches in Pocono Summit, 5.54 inches in Blakeslee and 4.63 inches in Stoddartsville. The 9.44 inch event total in East Stroudsburg was the greatest one storm total on record even surpassing the storm totals from Hurricanes Connie and Diane in 1955, Floyd in 1999 and Ivan in 2004. This heavy rain helped the state of Pennsylvania have its second wettest October on record dating back to 1895. The statewide average precipitation total was 6.49 inches, 3.31 inches wetter than normal. Only 1976 (6.59 inches) was wetter. At the Pocono Regional Airport in Mount Pocono, the monthly precipitation total of 12.80 inches was 9.04 inches wetter than normal. The cold front moved from near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at 8 p.m. EDT on the 7th, to the Susquehanna Valley in Pennsylvania at 2 a.m. EDT on the 8th, to the Poconos and Berks County in Pennsylvania and just west of Chesapeake Bay in Maryland at 8 a.m. EDT on the 8th. The cold front stalled as waves of low pressure road northeast along it. At 2 p.m. EDT on the 8th, the cold front just edged into northwestern New Jersey and the Philadelphia northwest suburbs and was still west of Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. At 8 p.m. EDT that evening the cold front barely moved into the Philadelphia New Jersey suburbs and the Delmarva Peninsula. The cold front and waves of low pressure cleared the Delaware and New Jersey coasts between Midnight EDT and 2 a.m. EDT on the 9th. The slow movement and stalling coupled with an unstable air mass and tropical moisture associated with Tammy helped enhance the torrential downpours. The flooding would have been even worse if not for the unseasonably dry weather that preceded this event from the middle of August.