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Region pounded by 5-8 inches of rain in 12 hours

Parts of Lycoming County received 5 to 8 inches of rain during Thursday night’s round of storms, and watches are out for the West Branch of the Susquehanna River to crest near flood stage at Williamsport this afternoon, according to the National Weather Service in State College.

Flood stage at the city is 20 feet, with the river expected to crest at 19.7 feet.

The city is protected by an earthen-based levee system.

“At times, the rain came down at 5 inches per hour,” said Craig Evanego, a meteorologist with the weather service.

The county experienced 5 to 8 inches of rain between 11 p.m. Thursday to 7 a.m. Friday.

“We ended up having a line of storms developing and persisting over the same areas for a few hours where the line stalled and the heaviest rain fell,” he said. Bursts of rain were experienced by Lycoming County residents, especially those in the Trout Run, Cogan Station, Warrensville and Jersey Shore areas.

The cause was a frontal system clashing with an unseasonable warm and humid air mass.

“You got .36 inches at the airport overnight and through the morning,” Evanego said. Another quarter-inch fell shortly after 12:30 p.m. Friday.

“Just north and west, the weather service received reports of 4 to 8 inches of rain,” Evanego said. “It’s not unheard of, but it’s unusual,” he said.

The heaviest rain covered a fairly narrow band from just west of State College towards Jersey Shore and north of Williamsport and into the northwestern part of Sullivan County and a few miles either side of that line, Evanego said.

The heaviest rainfall in Lycoming County was measured at 4.64 inches one mile northeast of the city, he said.

There was a report of 5.3 inches a mile north of Mill Hall in Clinton County. One couple reported 7 inches just west of State College, Evanego said.

Wind damage occurred with trees down in the Trout Run area, he said.

Lycoming Creek at Camp Susque crested above Trout Run at 17.08 feet. Creek watchers worry when the creek reaches 9 feet. It dropped to 10.21 feet as of noon Friday.

Before the rain, the creek was at 2.24 feet. It rose 15 feet in several hours.

The temperature reached 81 degrees Wednesday, a degree shy of the record of 82.

Today and the remainder of the weekend will be noticeably cooler but not enough to freeze the waters. Today’s highs will be in the low 50s.

PPL Electric Utilities spokeswoman Teri McBride reported 1,300 customers throughout Lycoming and Clinton Counties were affected by the downpours and subsequent flooding since midnight Friday, mostly due to trees felled onto wires.

The largest service outage was in Pine Creek Friday morning when 841 customers lost power from 11:30 a.m. until 12:15 p.m., she said.

McBride said that PPL performs regular storm drills and certain upgrades have been made that allow power to be rerouted, causing fewer and shorter outages.

“Investments we’ve made have helped us avoid many outages that could have occurred,” McBride said.

The company has safety tips for customers to follow during bad weather on its site, www.pplelectic.com.

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