Ida report: Number of central Pa. spots received more than 7 inches of rain, roads closed

Wednesday's rainfall total from Tropical Depression Ida stands as the third-highest one-day amount, according to the National Weather Service.

Harrisburg International Airport registered 6.64 inches of rain in 24 hours of Ida, which puts the storm behind Agnes (9.13 inches) and Lee (7.71 inches).

And around York County, there were several spots recording above 7 inches.

The rain caused flooding that closed roads around central Pa. Bridges that were closed must be inspected before they can reopen.

Follow along here as this post will be updated with information as central Pa. cleans up from Tropical Depression Ida.

York County declares disaster

York County commissioners signed a countywide disaster declaration Thursday.

Officials still are receiving damage assessments from municipalities and emergency management coordinators, President Commissioner Julie Wheeler said during a news conference.

York County received 550 storm-related calls, she said. Of that number, 27 were for water rescues.

Many of the water rescues could have been prevented if individuals had followed the rule of "turn around, don't drown," she said.

While the damage was widespread, the central part of the county was the hardest hit, an said Bill James, deputy director of the York County Office of Emergency Management.

Fewer than 100 roads in the county are closed, Wheeler said.

The number of customers without power was about 2,500 Thursday afternoon — down from 7,000 earlier in the day, James said.

Officials are asking anyone with damage to report it. If a certain threshold is met, it could lead to an opportunity for grants and loans.

Residents can fill out the individual damage reporting form, which is available at yorkcountypa.gov. Or they can call 211 to report it.

-- Teresa Boeckel

Road damage

• Goldsboro (York County): Damage to Valley and Pines roads will make it difficult to head north out of the borough. A section of both roads are closed until further notice because of missing or warped sections of road.

-- Staff reports

Businesses Damaged

It was not a good day at Green Valley Swimming Pool and Sports Club in York after Ida dumped more than 6 inches of rain on the area. There was 30 inches of water in the snack bar at the pool, the picnic tables in the Bull Pen Pavilion were floating away, water completely engulfed both filter rooms and all pool filter pumps were destroyed. The lap pool, batting cages, tennis courts, basketball courts, volleyball courts and other tables were submerged. 

"The fence around the property is down. There's mud and debris everywhere. It's going to be a big clean-up effort," owner Russ Jacobs said. "We are hoping to be open by Saturday, but best-case scenario, right now, is Sunday. We will know more tomorrow, hopefully."

Jacobs said the pool, which he and his wife have owned for 29 years, was set to close for the season after Labor Day, but the storm damage ruined their final weekend plans. 

"We really wanted to be open for our members, but this is not something we expected to happen. We haven't seen water like this since Hurricane Agnes hit the area in 1972. It's just devastating," he said. 

-- Angel Albring

Storm totals

The final results are in. And the most dumped-on place in Adams, Franklin, Lebanon or York counties is ... Manchester.

That's right. Manchester, in York County, received 7.72 inches of rain from Ida. It was one of five York County locations that registered more than seven inches of rain.

Littlestown, in Adams County, wasn't far behind at 7.02 inches and Palmyra, in Lebanon County, nearly made it to seven, with 6.95 inches.

Here are the precipitation amounts for Ida, according to the National Weather Service.

And, just for fun, multiply these numbers by 10 and that's how much snow we'd be digging out of right now.

Adams County

• Littlestown, 7.02
• Abbottstown, 6.96
• East Berlin, 6.87
• Cashtown, 6.56
• Gettysburg, 6.15
• Fairfield, 5.46
• Biglerville, 5.01
• York Springs, 4.82

Franklin County

• Greencastle, 4.43
• Fayetteville, 4.25
• Mercersburg, 4.22
• Chambersburg, 3.70
• Waynesboro, 3.52

Lebanon County

• Palmyra, 6.95
• Newmanstown, 6.56
• Jonestown, 5.83
• Lebanon, 5.69
• Schaefferstown, 5.58
• Cambelltown, 4.67

York County

• Manchester, 7.72
• Spry, 7.46
• Mount Wolf, 7.42
• Felton, 7.20
• Dover, 7.13
• Dallastown, 6.98
• York, 6.98
• Spring Grove, 6.82
• Hanover, 6.78

-- Shelly Stallsmith

Little damage in Lebanon

The storm dumped 4 to 8 inches of rain over the entire county, according to Lebanon Department of Emergency Services Director Bob Dowd. Residents were lucky that the ground was not overly saturated to cause previously seen damage with other tropical storms in the area. 

"We had a large number of localized flooding events," he said. "Swatara Creek is expected to crest at 17, so what we are seeing right now is about as bad as it is going to get."

County officials received no calls of infrastructure damage. Most of the events overnight included localized flooded roads, light water rescue situations, and tree and power outages calls handled by local first responders. 

Two water rescues happened early Thursday morning in Lickdale and Bethel townships. Officials did not report any injuries from those rescues. 

"Every car that was caught in high water had either gone around barricades or ignored obvious signs that the road was impassable," Dowd said. 

First Energy had about 900 customers, mostly in Swatara, that are without power, according to Dowd. Most of those were caused by trees downed in the area. Officials are not considering a disaster declaration at this time.  

-- Matt Toth

Assessing damage

Members of the York County Office of Emergency Management team are spending the day doing damage assessments around the county.

There were 91 road closures last night and at least 20 water rescues, but public information officer Ted Czech expects that number to go up as reports roll in.

“That was just an approximation,” he said. “There were 24 two weeks ago from Fred, but they were all car rescues.”

Czech was right about the number going up. There ended up being 27 water rescues, and 546 storm-related calls overall.

That wasn’t the case on Wednesday night. Families and pets were rescued from various areas around the county. Ida forced rescues in a couple of the same areas that Fred hit – Dover and Hellam townships – and added the Silver Lake area of Fairview Township for good measure.  

-- Shelly Stallsmith 

Road closures

The state Department of Transportation is reporting that 138 roads are closed in District 8, which includes Adams, Franklin, Lebanon and York counties, as of Thursday morning.

The number includes bridges that have been impacted, spokesman Dave Thompson said.

Crews will be out inspecting the bridges to see what, if any, damage has been done and whether the spans can be reopened, Thompson said.

In Newberry Township, public works crews are out clearing debris from municipal roads, such as downed trees, manager Tony Miller said. They worked until 10 p.m. last night, and they are back at it again.

Five municipal bridges in the township need to be inspected before they can reopen, he said. The township is working with its engineer to get that done.

Those bridges are:

• Midway Road between Cly Road and Route 382
• Garriston Road (two box culverts)
• Red Mill Road between Old Trail Road and White Dogwood Road
• Pleasant Drive over Bennett Run

They will have to wait until the water recedes enough to be able to check the spans for damage, Miller said.

It's possible that the township will be adding more to the list. This does not include any state roads or county-owned bridges.

"It's not good," he said.

These are some of the roads reported to be closed by 511pa.com: 

Lebanon County

• Palmyra Bellegrove Road (North Annville Township) between Steelstown and Bellegrove Roads for downed tree in wires.
• PA 934 (East Hanover Township) between Jonestown Road and exit US 22 east Allentown for flooding.

York County

• PA 216 (Springfield Township) between Mount Zion Road and end of PA 216) for a bridge outage.
• PA 392 (Newberry Township) between Old Trail Road, Robinhood Drive and Fishing Creek Road for a bridge outage.

-- Shelly Stallsmith and Teresa Boeckel

More:Ida moves out, but flooding and road closures remain in parts of central Pa.

More:Flood tracker: See live information and forecasts for river levels in your area

School delays, closures

Some school districts have closed, planned for a virtual learning day, or called for a two-hour delay.

Others, such as York Suburban, are operating on a normal schedule.

The following school districts are closed:

• Dover Area School District (It will have a makeup day on Feb. 21.)
• Northern Lebanon School District
• York City School District

The following districts have a virtual learning day:

• Northeastern
• Red Lion
• Spring Grove
• West Shore

The following districts have a two-hour delay:

• Bermudian Springs
• Central York (However, the middle school will have a remote learning day because the power is out in the building)
• Conewago Valley
• Dallastown
• Eastern York
• Fairfield Area
• Gettysburg Area
• Littlestown Area
• Northern (Wellsville Elementary School will be closed, however, because it does not have electricity.)
• Palmyra Area
• South Eastern 
• Southern York
• Upper Adams 
• West York

-- Teresa Boeckel