Police Chief: Easton Was Well-Prepared For Irene

Though Hurricane Irene took at least two dozen lives and inflicted billions of dollars of damage across East Coast, the City of Easton appears to have fared well during the storm and subsequent flooding.

Despite a number of downed trees and electrical wires, as well as flash flooding in a number of locations, there were no reported injuries.

Though storm and flood cleanup continues in the areas that were hardest hit, city officials said planning, preparation and experience with several much more serious floods in recent years, in addition to luck, played a major part in minimizing the effect of the weather.

"Unfortunately and fortunately for us, if we haven't been this may have been a big deal," said Easton Police Chief Larry Palmer. "In the scope of some of those events, this was not that difficult."

Meanwhile, it appears so far the city's finances will not be unduly stressed by the storm either.

While it is too early to ascertain the costs associated with the public works or if the department's facilities adjacent to the Bushkill Creek sustained damage, police department overtime was negligible at $500. Fire department overtime has not yet been calculated.

During the height of the storm, the police and fire departments rescued an number of stranded motorists on Lehigh Drive where runoff flooded the roadway before the river engulfed it. Several were cited for disregarding the road closure.

Flooding also temporarily closed the 900 block of Center Street and the 700 block of Line Street, several sections of Bushkill Street/Drive, and Route611/South Delaware Drive, which remains, though PennDOT workers and equipment were seen working the area Tuesday morning.

Lehigh Drive also remained closed on Tuesday.

One of the city's largest institutions, , lost power during the storm and didn't have it restored until Monday.

A few other sections of College Hill were still without power, with residents saying power might not be restored for a few more days.

At least a dozen buildings around the city were adversely affected by the storm, with at least three residences being hit by uprooted trees. Downed trees also snapped power lines in eight locations in the West Ward, College Hill and Southside, as well as along the

The storm also caused a gas leak in the city, the fire department reported.

While Downtown suffered no road closures, downed trees or power failures, and the Central Fire station were affected by water damage, and football-sized chunk of masonry was apparently sheared off the facade of the Building at Northampton and Fourth streets some time during the night.