Tornado touches down Monday in Montgomery County
Rain poured down in buckets Monday, enough for Allentown to tally a record 2.76 inches and for many spots in the Lehigh Valley to be inundated with floodwater. A tornado also touched down in Montgomery County, the National Weather Service confirmed.
Rainfall amountsof1to3inches were widespread. Martins Creek, Northampton County, reported 3.15 inches — the highest total in the area. The2.76 inches reported at Lehigh Valley International Airport smashed the old record of 1.05 inches set Nov. 30, 2016. It was the second-highest one-day rainfall total of the year behind the 5.48 inches from Tropical Storm Isaias in August.
In the rain’s wake came a scrambled frenzy of emergency personnel dispatched to rescue stranded motorists and unclog storm drains awash in debris and wet leaves.
Rescue workers were called to Weaversville Road in Hanover Township, NorthamptonCounty, just before 1:30p.m. for a report of a car with two occupants stuck in deep water. Dispatchers reported that the water had risen to 4 feet near the scene.
“We’ve seen flooding in the usual low-lying areas like Mack Boulevard, Sumner Avenue and Basin Street,” said Allentown fire Capt. John Christopher, adding that firefighters had to escort people from a vehicle submerged in thigh-high water about 1 p.m. on Mack Boulevard near Trout Creek Lane.
Flooded roads also were reported near South Mall at the border of Salisbury and Emmaus and Cedar Crest Boulevard at
Hamilton Boulevard in South Whitehall Township, and elsewhere around the region. On Easton Road in Lower Saucon Township, the east branch of the Saucon Creek spilled onto the roadway Mondaynightandcrept
near homes off Lower Saucon Road at Kings Mill Road.
The same system prompted flash-floodwarnings and tornado warnings in southeast Pennsylvania. The weather service confirmed that an EF-0 tornado
touched down for less than a minute immediately east of the Route 309 (Bethlehem Pike) northbound onramp to the 202 Parkway in Montgomeryville around 3:47 p.m.
Small trees were uprooted and the outdoor picnic benches and tables were picked up and tossed, breaking the front window of a nearby restaurant, a public information statement said.
The tornado also pulled air-handling equipment from the roof of a restaurant and tore off siding from the northeastern edge of the building. Six to eight cars in nearby parking lots were shaken or tossed as the tornado moved through.
The tornado packed winds of 70 mph, had a maximum path width of 100 yards and traveled approximately a half-mile. There were no reports of injuries.