Exhausted neighbors in Langhorne worry about more flooding on Neshaminy Creek
LANGHORNE, Pa. (CBS) -- Neighbors lent their driveways to others trying to save belongings from the swollen Neshaminy Creek after Tuesday night's flooding.
"Right here is where the water came up in Hurricane Floyd and Hurricane Ida," said Tom Walko as he pointed to a notch in his garage wall right by the door. So, it was fitting he wore a shirt printed with: "I survived Hurricane Floyd," he proudly read aloud every word.
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He was grateful Wednesday morning that flood waters from the Neshaminy did not take over his home on Periwinkle Avenue this time.
"It came almost to the back edge of my property but it didn't hit," Walko said.
However, his heart went out to his neighbors just a block away on Bridle Drive, which was underwater after Tuesday night's storm.
"The poor people in the back, they often get it a couple times a year. So, I feel sorry for them," he said.
Walko said parked trailers nearby did not belong to the people who owned the driveways where the vehicles stood. Instead, the residents always hold space for their neighbors on Bridle.
"It's just a given. It's just the nature. People get along here," Walko said. "That's why you see all this stuff on the street that everybody moves out ahead of time, brings their stuff up and their vehicles up."
As the flood waters went down, Walko said his home, he, and his wife are safe and dry.
"I feel grateful," he said with a nervous laugh.
Neighbors who spent the night watching rising flood waters were worried Wednesday about the weekend forecast in Middletown Township.
"You gotta be careful because it all starts floating away," said Gary Morin, who was happy his woodpile was still intact. "I've seen it all in terms of major flooding, ice, rain."
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He also saw waters from the flooded Neshaminy Creek come closer and closer to his back fence from Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.
"Worry. I was up all night. Just worrying, because you don't know if it's going to come up to this plateau," he said. "I just moved stuff out of my garage and my mower's, I've got machinery over here. I'll drive that across the street and park it in the grass and it seems to do the trick."
In his 25 years on Periwinkle Avenue, Morin watched frequent flooding drive away his neighbors on Bridle Drive.
"There are only five houses back there now. There used to be, what, 30, 40 houses back there," he said.
Watching part of his neighborhood disappear has Morin watching for more storms to come.
"I think I will be fine. I think I will be fine but I am just leaving all my stuff that I moved up until after the weekend," he said.