WIld Video Ice Jam Breaks, Forces River To Surge Backwards

The ice jam shown in the video at the bottom of this post
flooded a tavern in Avoca, Pennsylvania. Photo by Aimee
Pinger, Times Leader, Wilkes Barre, PA.

For the past couple of weeks, the Northeast has been plagued by numerous ice jams, which  have caused serious flooding problems in several states, including Vermont.  

As the often do, some of the ice jams have shifted, or broken up, then re-formed downstream.

One such incident unfolded in Avoca, Pennsylvania, yielding a wild video taken by the Avoca Fire Department.

The video is at the bottom of this post.

It shows water and ice rushing down a river, contained on both sides by concrete or some other barriers. The ice apparently jammed up again downstream, causing the water to violent back up. The river, with its ice chunks, suddenly flows backwards in a wave, which is impressive to see.

This new wave of flooding damaged six homes and a tavern in the area. This river caused flooding during the very serious Northeast midwinter heavy rains, thaw and ice jams in 1996. A $5.7 million flood control project was built along this river as a result of that 1996 disaster, but this new inundation happened anyway, reports the Times Leader of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania.

This is one of many dramatic videos ice jams in the Northeast recently. Perhaps the most famous was shared by the National Weather Service in South Burlington, Vermont, and showed a time lapse of an ice jam rapidly forming along the Ausable River in northern New York.

Here's the wild video out out of Avoca, Pennsylvania.