Storm Cleanup
Storm, Flood and Winter Cleanup in Scranton: What to Do in the First 72 Hours
A NEPA contractor's field guide to the first three days after severe weather in Scranton: what to do in what order, what to document, and how to size a container for wet debris.
Every few years the weather reminds people that Scranton sits in a bowl. The Lackawanna River runs the length of the valley, the tributaries come off the Moosic and Bald Mountain ridges at a steep pitch, and when three or four inches of rain lands on ground that is already saturated, the water goes downhill fast and into the low ground and the basements. I have been running containers in this valley since 2011 — the same year Tropical Storm Lee put water in places that had stayed dry since Agnes in 1972 — and the pattern has not changed. Lee, then the remnants of Ida in September 2021, are the storms people here measure everything against, and Agnes is still the yardstick older neighbours reach for.
But rain is only one of four hazards we get. Winter brings wet snow loads on carports and older porch roofs, ice storms that snap limbs across service drops, and ice dams that back water under the shingles and into second-floor ceilings. Then spring freeze-thaw finishes off the driveways and foundation joints the winter cracked. Here is what I tell homeowners to do in the first 72 hours, in the order that matters.
Safety comes first, and it comes in a specific order
Nothing on your property is worth an emergency room visit, and nothing is worth a live conductor. Work down this list before you pick up a single branch.
- Downed lines. Assume every wire on the ground is energised, including the ones that look like cable or phone. Assume the puddle it is lying in is energised too. Call the utility and keep everybody — kids, dogs, curious neighbours — back a full pole span. Never cut, move or touch a limb that is resting on a conductor, even a small one.
- Gas. If you smell gas or hear hissing, leave the house on foot, do not flip switches, do not start a vehicle in the attached garage, and call from outside.
- Standing floodwater. Valley floodwater is not rainwater. It carries sewage backup, heating oil, lawn chemicals, and whatever washed out of the garage two streets up. Boots and gloves at minimum; keep it off open cuts and your face.
- Submerged hazards. Under six inches of brown water there may be an open floor drain, a sump pit with the cover floated off, a cellar stair or a nail-up board. Probe with a pole before you step.
- Leaning trees and hanging limbs. A tree that is leaning into a new position, or a heavy limb hung up in the canopy, belongs to a certified arborist with rigging — not to you and a borrowed chainsaw. Widowmakers drop with no warning and no sound.
- Chainsaw work. Storm wood is under compression and tension in ways standing timber never is. A trunk bridging two points will pinch your bar or spring when it releases, and kickback off the upper quadrant of the tip is what puts people in Geisinger. Chaps, eye and ear protection, and never alone.
- Carbon monoxide. Generators go outdoors, well away from windows, doors and dryer vents. Not the garage with the door up. Not the covered porch. CO after an outage kills more people in this country than the storm did.
The National Weather Service Binghamton office issues the warnings for Lackawanna County, and PEMA publishes the state guidance on post-disaster safety and assistance. Both are worth having bookmarked before you need them.
Document everything before you move anything
This is the step people skip and regret. Before a single item leaves the basement, shoot photos and video of every angle — wide shots that establish the room, close shots of the waterline, the label plate on the furnace, the serial number on the water heater, the ceiling stain under the ice dam, the fence section on the ground. Film the house from all four corners, and get the water depth against a tape measure if you can do it safely.
Then keep every receipt: pump rental, tarps, fuel, the dumpster. Adjusters reimburse documented mitigation and argue with the undocumented kind. Photograph the container as you load it, too — that pile of ruined belongings is the clearest evidence of loss you will ever have, and once it is at the transfer station it is gone.
Triage order: make it safe, make it dry, then make it tidy
Homeowners want to start with the yard because the neighbours can see it. Resist that. In order: tarp the roof, board the broken window, stop the water coming in. Then get water out and air moving — pumps, wet vac, fans, dehumidifiers, windows open if the weather allows. Only then deal with the branches on the lawn. A yard full of brush costs you nothing overnight. A ceiling taking water for two more days costs you the ceiling.
The flooded basement — the chapter that matters most in Scranton
Nearly every pre-war house in Green Ridge, South Side, the Hill Section, West Scranton and Minooka has a full basement — and that is exactly where the panelling, furnace, water heater, washer and dryer, carpet and thirty years of stored boxes all live. When the valley floods, that is the room that fills.
You are on a 48-hour clock. After roughly two days of saturation, mould colonises porous material and the decision stops being yours.
What comes out, what stays
- Out, no argument: wet carpet and pad, particleboard and MDF furniture, mattresses, upholstered furniture, wall panelling, insulation, and drywall cut a foot above the waterline. Cardboard storage boxes and anything paper.
- Out, but get it inspected first: a submerged furnace, water heater, or electrical panel. Do not fire a flooded appliance back up to "see if it runs."
- Salvageable: solid wood furniture that can dry slowly, metal, glass, sealed plastic totes, and most hard goods that will take a wash and a disinfectant.
Size for weight, not for the size of the pile
This is the single most expensive mistake in a wet-out. Water-logged material weighs roughly three to five times what it weighs dry. A roll of carpet and pad two people carry dry becomes a four-person lift, and saturated drywall is close to masonry by weight. So on a flooded basement I will steer you to a 10 yard or a 15 yard even when the pile at the bottom of the stairs looks enormous, because you will hit the tonnage line long before you fill the box. Ordering a 30 yard for wet material means paying for air you cannot legally load. If you are unsure, our size guide walks the maths.
Ice dams, roof leaks and interior winter damage
An ice dam forms when heat escaping into the attic melts snow on the upper roof, the meltwater runs to the cold eave and refreezes, and the ridge of ice pushes the next round of water backward under the shingles. What you see inside is a brown ring on a bedroom ceiling in February. The cleanout that follows is drywall, wet blown-in insulation, and sometimes a section of roof deck. If the shingles come off with it, that is a tear-off, and our roofing container service is sized for it — shingle weight is its own calculation.
What actually comes out of a storm-hit yard
People badly underestimate tree volume. A single mature limb-out — one big oak or maple losing a major leader — will fill a 20 yard once it is bucked and the brush is in. A whole tree down is usually multiple hauls. Brush is bulky but light; wet root balls, stump grindings and the soil with them are the opposite, and can max a container at half full.
| Debris type | Weight vs volume | Best container | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clean brush, limbs, leaves | Very bulky, very light — fills fast, weighs little | 20 or 30 yard | Mulch and compost; cheapest stream to handle |
| Bucked trunk wood, large rounds | Dense and heavy; deceptive volume | 10 or 15 yard | Firewood, chipping or wood recycling |
| Root balls, stumps, storm-washed soil | Extremely heavy; hits tonnage at half full | 10 yard | Heavy-debris disposal |
| Flooded basement contents (carpet, drywall, furniture) | 3–5× dry weight when saturated | 10 or 15 yard | Transfer station, mixed municipal waste |
| Mixed storm debris — fence panels, siding, shingles, insulation | Moderate weight, awkward volume | 20 yard | Sorted construction and demolition stream |
Sort it — it is cheaper and it is the law
Keep clean woody brush separate from everything else. It is handled at a lower cost because it becomes mulch and compost, and Pennsylvania restricts leaf and yard waste from landfill disposal regardless of what you would prefer — the rules sit with the PA Department of Environmental Protection. Once a fence panel, a roll of soaked carpet or a bag of shingles lands in the brush pile, the whole container becomes mixed waste and prices accordingly. Our yard waste service handles the clean side; a general roll-off rental covers the rest. If you want the full list of what can and cannot ride along, we keep one for Lackawanna County.
The municipal option, and where it runs out
The County and the City of Scranton both run collection programmes, and after a widespread event jurisdictions sometimes add a special storm-debris pickup with kerbside piles. Use it if your damage is modest and you are not in a rush. The limits are real: brush-only rules, length and diameter caps, no construction or household material, and — after a regional event — queues that run for weeks because every crew in the valley is booked. That is exactly the window where a container in your driveway beats waiting, especially when there is a mould clock running in the basement.
Placement problems that only show up in storm and winter work
- Blocked drive. If a tree is across the driveway, the container cannot get past it. Sequence the tree service first, or we set at the kerb.
- Saturated ground. A loaded roll-off on soft lawn sinks and ruts. Post-flood, we stay on pavement. Plywood under the rails protects asphalt.
- Snow and ice. Clear and salt the set spot before delivery. A truck cannot back a loaded box up an icy grade, and Scranton has plenty of grade.
- Snowbanks and no driveway. Kerb placement in the city usually needs a street permit; we walk you through it in the permits guide.
Coordinate the container with the crew
The best storm jobs are the ones where the timing lines up. Tell your tree service and restoration contractor when the box lands, and tell us when they are scheduled. A crew that stages brush on the lawn and re-handles it later is billing you twice. Give your adjuster the delivery date, so the mitigation timeline in your file matches reality. If the job turns into a full gut of the lower level, our residential containers carry it the rest of the way.
When the weather turns, call early
Big Z has run this valley's storm calls since 2011 — Lee, Ida, and every ice event since. Locally owned, licensed and insured, flat-rate with no surprise line items, and emergency or next-day delivery when the forecast goes bad. We know these neighbourhoods and these basements. When you are ready, get in touch or just call Mike and the crew at (570) 774-4910 — tell us what happened and roughly what you are looking at, and we will tell you honestly what size you need and how soon we can have it in the driveway.
Questions this guide did not answer? Call (570) 774-4910. We would rather spend two minutes on the phone than have you order the wrong container.