Pike weathers heavy rain

MILFORD - The amount of rain falling on the area from October 8 to 15 was more than twice the amount that prompted the flooding from tropical storm Ivan in September of last year, Pike County Emergency Management Director Roger Maltby said Wednesday. Ivan hit an already waterlogged area with six to seven inches of rain in 2004, and serious April, 2005 flooding followed some nine inches of rainfall, but Maltby said 14 to 15 inches of rain fell between the last two weekends. Aside from some localized street and state road flooding, in Matamoras and places prone to flooding, the recent deluge produced little damage in Pike, as the dry late summer weather dropped water tables and allowed the area to absorb much of the precipitation. In Milford, Borough Councilman Robert Fean said the heavier rains on the weekend of the Oct. 8 brought down a few tree limbs and prompted some flooding from leaves clogging storm drains, but no serious problems were reported. Milford firefighters responded to some 10 cellar pumpouts that Saturday, during the height of rainfall. Rainfall amounts of six to nine inches were reported following the weekend storm. Maltby said another five to six inches fell during the following week. Despite the recent rainfall, the Delaware River Basin Commission reported that storage levels in the three upstream New York City reservoirs remain about 20 percent below normal mean storage figures at about 48 percent of capacity. More rain is predicted for this weekend.