Worst flooding since 1972 hits Knoebel's Grove

Very sad news, but they've recovered from it in the past. At a point though, I think it might make more sense to find a place with higher ground. When does the amount of damage done, not equal staying put? After a while, I would think it would get really old. Knoebels is lucky in that the majority of the rides are portable and could be easily moved.

Knoebels will recover...but any news on Bushkill?

Bushkill is supposed to be ok. Their "website in progress" reports "no problem",, and the following news item gives more details:

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-n-l-flood-eas-062806-cn,0,4352972.story?coll=all-news-hed

Yeah, it sounds like Bushkill made it through okay. Good news... I was wondering how things were over there. With some free time this weekend (and a back problem that postponed my coastering plans), I'm contemplating heading over there.

The whole flood situation is pretty bad. I live in Bloomsburg, and I haven't had running water for the past two days. Some people have a lot of water damage to their homes also. It's been pretty rough. Hopefully Knoebel's gets taken care of soon.

And to think, I was thisclose to planning a trip to Knoebels/Hershey for this weekend about 2 weeks ago. I only balked because the hotels in the area were higher than I wanted to pay and the rates in the SFNE/LC area were better.

I hope all comes through well. I still gotta get up there sometime.
lata, jeremy
--two years, two major floods...

According to an article that was in our paper on Monday, Knoebels had about 40 rides up and running. They were opening up rides and attractions as soon as they had them cleaned up and inspected-- several while the park was open over the weekend.

Only the '72 (Agnes) and '06 floods occured during the season-- both in June. The '04 flood (Ivan) happened over one weekend in September, so they lost 2 days, and were up and running by the next weekend. The '75 event also happened in September, but I don't think the park was even open past Labor Day in those days. The '96 flood happened in January and was caused by a sudden snow melt.

I don't know whether those events over the past 34 years would make anyone think the park should be "moved." I would think the cost of moving (all the rides and other buildings and attractions, relocating utilities, not to mention the loss of revenue during the downtime it would take to relocate everything) would far exceed the cost of repairs needed now.

It appears that most of what needs to be done is time and labor, repairing the bed of Ol' Smokey, and draining and cleaning the pool, for example. There is the matter of replacing the damaged merchandise and food stuffs, but from what I've read, there didn't seem to be any major structural damage to any of the buildings or bridges that require repair.

I went there for the evening on Saturday, and while the flood damage was evident (small sections of areas you could normally walk on between buildings were blocked off with caution tape due to erosion of gravel, the pool had a couple feet of mud on the bottom, etc.), I was very impressed with how well they had cleaned up by then already. Almost all the non-kiddie rides were open. Even Ol' Smokey was open! The food stand over by Twister was closed, with a mud line about waist-high, evidence of how high the waters rose over on that side of the bridge.

Overall, I was impressed with how clean the park was, and how much was up and running. Never a bad visit to Knoebel's, even if they've just had a major flood!