CARBON COUNTY, Pa. — For most pools and lakes, Labor Day weekend is the last chance to get your feet wet before things shut down for the season. But at Beltzville State Park in Carbon County, high water levels from Ida forced that shut down a few days early.
Emma Chavez says her family left their Long Island, N.Y. home at 4 a.m. to have one last hurrah at the beach. But instead of a hurrah, it was Hurricane Ida’s aftermath, putting a damper on their plans.
“So sad because the children cannot play here,” Chavez said.
Park Manager Ben Monk explains that the high water levels first forced them to shut down the boat launches.
“The water fills up over the actual ramp part, so there’s nowhere to back your vehicle into. It’s all underwater,” he said.
But once they realized just how deep the waters grew, the beaches were next. The park manager tells us all the rain from the hurricane caused levels to rise about seven feet.
“Normally, the buoy lines are set, and the swim area goes out to about five feet deep," Monk said. "You add seven feet of water to that. It becomes treacherous.”
Monk says the danger is two-fold: besides the deeper waters, there’s added bacteria in it as well.
“A lot of the water that is in the lake is water run-off. So it’s coming through fields, it’s coming through, coming off roads,” he said.
All four pavilions at the park were booked, leaving many visitors barbecuing and their kids running in the rain.
“We were just eating and hanging out as a family,” Sammy Lamus-Mendoza, visiting from Philadelphia, said. "It’s been nice, although we haven’t really been able to do anything because it keeps raining.”
And on this rainy day, many tell us they wouldn’t go in the water anyway.
“It’s raining, so definitely not going to happen today,” Frank Panora, visiting from New York City, said.
“If it was warm, we would, but not now, it’s a little chilly out,” Joe Curtis, visiting from Deptford, N.J. said.
But Emma Chavez says her kids were planning on going in, despite the cold, wet weather.
“It’s not raining so heavy, but it’s nice,” she said.
Monk says swimming is closed for the rest of the year, but officials will reopen the boat launches when water levels drop enough.