Flood Waters Reach Larry Holmes Drive

The man standing at the Third Street Exxon station Thursday morning watching the water rise might have put it best.

"Let's send some of this to water to Texas, Texas is burning down."

Wildfires in Texas. Serious flooding along the Susquehanna River (enough to evacuate 100,000 people in Luzerne County).

Easton, meanwhile, was dealing with a flood that's not expected to be as catastrophic, but was still causing some problems.

The current forecast from the National Weather Service shows the river cresting at 31 feet between 2 and 8 a.m. Friday.

On Thursday morning, the water was high enough -- 26 feet -- to close Route 611 and Larry Holmes Drive between Third and Northampton. The Northampton County Assitance Office was evacuated at 10:30 a.m.

By 2 p.m., the water had reached the edge of the Exxon parking lot. Scott Park was cordoned off by police, but some people ducked under the yellow tape to gawk and take pictures.

Easton publics works employees and police officers removed the parking meters from Larry Holmes Drive. City officials were expected to hold an emergency management meeting later today.

Phillipsburg was expecting more significant flooding, and that town and other Warren County communities were preparing for evacauations, according to the Express-Times.

At 's on Northampton Street, workers were cleaning out the basement and readying pumps in case waters invaded. David Kaplan said the business had been through this before in last decade, when flooding got to 37 feet.

"Thirty-one feet, we'll get water in the basement," he said. "I don't know if we'll get a couple of inches or a couple of feet."

He said it would just be a matter of monitoring the river, and the changing forecasts.

"You get used to it," Kaplan said. "You don't want to get used to it..."

The Easton Area School District postponed two planned open houses tonight, one for the high school, the other for Forks Elementary. Both have been moved to Tuesday, Sept 20.

Also, the "Movies in the Park" event scheduled for Friday night at Nevin Park has been postponed. A new date will be announced later. In addition, the city 9/11 ceremony scheduled for Scott Park on Sunday has been moved to Centre Square.