Shickshinny, Luzerne County (WBRE/WYOU) — Many communities in our area are no stranger to flooding. One of those is Shickshinny, which lies along the Susquehanna river. Its been flooded out many times before – so crews are doing all they can to keep roads clear.

Keeping Route 11 from flooding near Shickshinny is not an easy task after days of rain. Almost as soon as pennDOT crews get one catch basin clear, another one gets backed up.

Mark Yeager, an assistant highway manager at PennDOT says, “The problem is it rained so hard that the drains we had the other day open are now clogged with the debris as you can see behind me coming from thousands of acres.”

Along the road – hills that are normally dry have become waterfalls. Runoff from the saturated ground creates deep pools along the roadside and tricky driving conditions. 

“We go away for a half hour come back and the road is flooded again… it’s a vicious cycle,” Yeager adds.

But in Shickshinny, and other river communities, people say conditions like this are to be expected in the spring.

Ed Wolford of Shickshinny says, “It’s water. It’s springtime. It’s that way every ear. With all the snow and all that, it’s natural. The river comes up every year – comes down every year.”

Just down the road – the boat launch, is closed. As the rain continues… And the river creeps higher, and higher,  residents say – their worries grow, too… 

Adam Bach of Shickshinny said, “We’ve had a lot of road erosion a lot of rain a lot of water a lot of flooding in peoples basements.”

Some volunteer firefighters call this one of the more dangerous springs in recent memory, and are now looking ahead, to the sun.