The damage in Hellertown has been repaired and Depot Street and the Community
Pool have reopened! The new web page visually chronicles the events
of the last two years. The new web page is loaded with images depicting
the various stages of demolition and reconstruction of the pool and Depot Street
tunnel. Click any of the above links to view the new page!
September 17, 2004 - The Night of the HurricaneSeptember 18, 2004 - The AftermathThis hurricane lasted a very long time and did something I've never heard of another storm doing. After it had tracked to the Northeast and went out to sea, it moved back down the Atlantic coast and circled back in to the Gulf of Mexico. It then regained some strength and made landfall over the Gulf states and finally died out. I was glad to see it go. Click the picture to view a larger copy of the image in a separate browser window. Note: If you are using a popup blocker, the new browser window may not load. |
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This picture shows the remnants of the pedestrian bridge that used to cross Silver Creek. This stream
is usually very shallow but looks like a small river in this image. The water level was much
higher than this the previous night! If you follow the stream up to its originating point, you will
see a bit of the damage that was done to the pump house at the community pool. This is where a
substantial amount of earth, mortar and stone collapsed into the stream and destroyed the pump machinery and
another building.
I have included a closeup of this part of the image below. The stream flows through a large drain pipe that passes beneath Depot Street. Since the collapse, the remnants of the stone wall were demolished and Depot Street is impassable. |
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This image shows a closeup view of the site of the collapse behind the Community Pool. If you look closely, you can see part of the large drain pipe and some pieces of the collapsed stone wall in different spots. This area looks much different now as there was significant demolition to make the area safer. For safety reasons, most of the park and area surrounding the pool was cordoned off. A week later, I was able to approach very close to the damaged area and took some additional pictures which will be available on this page in the near future. |
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This is a car that was abandoned at the Meadows Road bridge that crosses over the creek. In this image, the one-lane bridge appears to descend into a lake! This area commonly floods but this is the worst flooding I've seen in this specific location. |
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Water is being pumped out of the lower level of the building that houses the Hellertown Borough Hall and Police Station. |
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'Downtown' Hellertown on the morning of September 18th. This is the intersection of Main and Water
streets. You are looking down Water Street which has been closed for cleanup of debris near the old
bridge that is on the edge of town near the apartments on Front Street.
This area was strewn with debris and mud. I even noticed that a large number of golf balls had washed several blocks into downtown from the golf course! Mud and standing water covered the roads and parking lots. |
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A storage shed was washed into the drive-through lane at the bank! This picture shows a crew of workers who are loading the shed onto a flatbed tow truck. Also visible, is the large expanse of mud and water covering the parking lot. |
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Another View of the Mess at the Bank. On the right, you can see the fallen sign that was displayed in the above picture of Water & Main. The bank apparently didn't suffer too much from this incident and was open for business two days later. |
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This picture was taken at the parking lot of an assisted-living facility. In this image, you can see four cars that were washed into each other by the heavy rain and flood water. The parking lot is heavily cracked from water damge to the asphalt. I edited the picture slightly to protect the privacy of the parties involved. |
Two Weeks Later...(These pictures were taken about two weeks after the hurricane struck.) |
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This picture shows an overview of the damage that occurred after the drain pipe (or tunnel), the pump chamber and the stone wall collapsed into the stream. As of today, this area looks the same, awaiting whatever repairs will be effected by the local government. |
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This image shows the disintegrated remains of the pump chamber amid the remnants of the collaped stone wall. |
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This image shows the remains of the pump chamber with the rear end of the Pool facility building in the background. |
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You are looking down Depot Street in this picture. This road sustained damage from the undermining flood waters which also affected the support tunnel which allows Silver Creek to pass under it. |
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Saucon Creek passes by the Post Office. The bridge on this road was deemed unpassable a few days after the hurricane passed through. They repaired the bridge a few months ago and the road has been reopened. |
Hellertown Links:Homepage of Hellertown - http://www.hellertown.com Hellertown Area Library - http://www.hellertownlibrary.org Lost River Caverns - http://www.lostcave.com/index.htm Dewey Fire Company No. 1 - http://www.deweyfireco.org Hellertown Sportsmens' Association - http://www.hellertownsportsmen.com Saucon Valley Conservancy - http://hometown.aol.com/sauconvalleycons Citizens Coalition of Lower Saucon - http://www.permegear.com/ccls/index.html Saucon Valley Lions - http://sauconvalleylions.org Wikipedia Hellertown Page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellertown,_Pennsylvania The Hellertown Molls - http://www.angelfire.com/pa5/mollpa/1850s.html Dimmicks Hellertown History - http://www.dimmicks.com/history/hellertown.htm |
Hurricane Ivan Links:National Weather Service - National Hurricane Center / Tropical Prediction Center - http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/index.shtml Storm 2004 Hurricane Season: Ivan - http://www.palmbeachpost.com/storm/content/weather/special/storm/2004/atlantic/ivan/news.html NASA Facilities Weather - Ivan - http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/frances.html |
Future Updates (Important News!)Questions or Comments? |
Please know that I take no pleasure at all in the destruction caused by this hurricane. This page is here simply to show you what
happened in Hellertown, not to sensationalize it. I am very saddened by the negative impact this storm had on our community.
Do you have pictures of Hurricane Ivan's aftermath (in Hellertown or nearby) that you would like to share? I have limited disk space but I would be happy to add any pictures of Hellertown that you have to this page. The credit and rights are yours, of course and I would be glad to add whatever comments you prefer. Please e-mail me if you would like to contribute a picture or two. Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions or comments about the content or purpose of this web page. |
