Editor's note: First in a series of stories produced from the annual visit by PennDOT District 3-0 officials to The News-Item.
SHAMOKIN - As the creek along Route 890 in Hamilton continued to rise on Sept. 7, Bernard J. Klusman Jr., Northumberland County maintenance manager for PennDOT, called his staff back to their building on Dewart Street. It was time to enact a contingency plan in case flooding cut off access to the facility.
As they discussed plans during a brief meeting, that's exactly what happened.
"In a matter of a half-hour, that creek at Dan's Den rose about 3 feet - and then that was it. We were trapped," Klusman said. "Every access point to our facility was flooded."
With that, some 30 employees had to walk about 1.5 miles through the woods to get around the flood waters and out to Route 890 south of the Edison Heights neighborhood. Their vehicles and a majority of the facility's heavy equipment, while not endangered by flood waters, were stranded.
"We went out our back gate and over the river and through the woods," Klusman said, recounting the drama during an interview at The News-Item on Tuesday.
"Not over the river," interjected Sandra Tosca, District 3 executive, eliciting laughter.
Of course, there was nothing funny about that day and the coming weeks for the millions of people effected by the flooding. And for PennDOT, that memorable moment began what would be a tiring and expensive next few months.
Totaling the damage
September's historic flooding caused approximately $60 million in damage to roads and bridges in six of the nine counties that make up District 3, which stretches from Northumberland and Snyder counties in the south up to the New York border. There were 2,000 "damage sites," including destroyed roads, washed out shoulders or damaged or destroyed bridges, in those six counties.
Also, eight bridges were lost during the flooding, and 400 others damaged. An estimated 12 miles of roadway needed reconstruction.
At the peak of the flooding, 250 roads in the district were closed, including a portion of Interstate 80 at Buckhorn and the westbound lanes of 180 in the Montoursville-Loyalsock area. Having to close interstates created a real traffic nightmare, Tosca noted.
Twenty-eight of those closed roads would suffer permanent damage, including Route 487 near Knoebels Amusement Resort.
In Northumberland County, there were 157 damage sites that suffered a combined $2.7 million in damage. In Columbia County there were 211 damage sites and just under $7 million in damage; and in Montour, 40 damage sites totaled just under $1.1 million.
Bradford, Lycoming and Sullivan counties also had extensive damage, while there was little impact on PennDOT infrastructure in the other three district counties, Tioga, Union and Snyder.
To date, Tosca said, 97 percent of the damaged sites have been repaired.
It would take until shortly before Thanksgiving before things returned to normal, however, and the amount of overtime doubled between September and late November.
District 3 has touted its in-house capabilities over the past few years, and that made a big difference in recovering from the flooding, Tosca said. Having excavators, equipment such as pipe flushers and the staff to operate them "really helped us in being able to turn around as quickly as we did before winter," she said.
The repairs that took place over the six-month period from September to March would normally have taken 18 months to two years to complete, Tosca said. Waivers on advertising, permitting and environmental requirements helped expedite the repairs, she said.
All things considered, Tosca, Klusman and other district officials are pleased with the progress, which was also aided by the mild winter.
Staff praised
Northumberland County staff wasted no time getting to work on the local damage sites when the evacuated workers reached the highway after their walk through the woods, Klusman recounted.
"We made sure everybody was accounted for. Then we split the people in half - you get in this van, they'll take you home; you get in this van, we're going to work," he said.
Some Sunbury office employees were relocated to the PennDOT facilities in Buckhorn, Columbia County, and about six workers had to stay in a hotel near there for a few days.
Maintenance crews had to borrow vehicles, equipment and tools from other counties, and inspectors, engineers and other staff from areas not affected by the flooding, including from as far away as Erie, rushed in to help the flood-stricken counties.
Staff worked "horrendous hours," Tosca said, many of them seven days a week, 12 to 14 hours a day. After two weeks, PennDOT required maintenance and even engineering staff to take at least one day off a week.
Tosca said the teamwork displayed was "amazing."
"Everybody had the attitude, 'What can I do to help?'" she said.
"The dedication of our people was phenomenal both during and after the flood," added Rick Mason, community relations coordinator for District 3.
He said about three dozen district employees themselves were impacted by the flood, "some to the point of actually losing their homes," he said, "and they kept coming to work."
Tosca also praised the contractors who helped PennDOT repair flood damage. There was an obvious need to address emergency sites, but the concern of an approaching winter was also front-of-mind in trying to get all roads and bridges repaired, she said.
Reimbursing the loss
Tosca said the district will receive 100 percent reimbursement for emergency repairs and 80 percent reimbursement for permanent repairs from the federal government.
The district has been granted a $2 million loan from monies in the state motor license fund to help with expenses until the federal dollars are acquired, which could take up to two years.
She said the last major flood in the state in 1996 caused approximately $27 million in damage to state roads and bridges.
Although she doesn't know at this point what effect the flood of 2011 will have on the district's 2012-2013 budget, Tosca said she is grateful for the mild winter, which enabled District 3 to save $1.6 million from its $12.5 million winter budget.
'Move faster'
Klusman was asked if there is anything new in the contingency plan after his crew's harrowing experience in September. "Just that we know how fast it (the creek) can come up now," he said. "If it's on the rise, we're going to have to be a little more diligent to move faster."
Also, arrangements have been made to stage equipment at a large parking lot at a business along Route 890.