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Animals evacuated from Greene Dreher Sterling Fairgrounds

The sheep, pigs, dairy cows were lead to safety.

NEWFOUNDLAND, Wayne County — UPDATE:

So far it's not nearly as bad as people had thought it would be here.

The roadway where we are just up from the Stourbridge Complex is covered but still passable.  

PennDOT was out this morning along Maple Ave trying to clear up some areas that are prone to washing out. 

This video was taken at about 8 p.m. as the water was rushing down the hillside and into the drains in the Texas Township portion of Maple Avenue.  

This area was flooded pretty badly back in May along with mud and debris.  

Further down the street, closer to Honesdale, the water was much deeper in the street in front of Darla Cherrick's house.  

There was already a lake forming in her yard from the runoff. 

Neighbors say they've tried to prepare for this storm as much as they could.

"We put up a barrier of sand and boards and plastic all the way down to curve it around to another ditch to get it away from everybody. It's slowly creeping up across the street and it's doing better than we thought it would be, which we're happy for but it's only a matter of time.  If we get a little bit more rain and it'll be over here," said Eric Abel, Texas Township.

And an update to the GDS Fair flooding situation, after animals had to be rescued from the fairgrounds this afternoon.

Fair board member Matt Swendsen sent us these pictures from the barn this evening.  He estimates there's another 6 to 8 inches of water and the barn is completely flooded.  

The good news is the pigs are safe and dry at the Wayne County Fairgrounds just outside of Honesdale in the barn. 

Most of them were snoozing away not even noticing the rain continuing to fall.

Original story:

The waters rose very quickly here at the fairgrounds in Newfoundland and the animal barn flooded pretty quickly.

Groups of 4-H members and fair staff worked to get all of the animals out of the barn at the fairgrounds.  

The pig pens were the first to start to take on water and they have been moved out.  

Next, it was the sheep, goats, and the cows that were loaded into trailers to safety.  

The sounds of the animals carried through the barn, as they trudged through the water, not knowing what was going on.  

It was definitely a group effort as the rains continued to fall heavily.

"I put a couple of calls out.  We got a lot of volunteers come down with trailers trying to haul these guys out of here before the rain picks up again pretty soon here so we're trying to clear out everything," said Matt Swedsenm GDS Fair Board Member.

"They were saying that we might get a little flood but this was just a lot and when it just started coming up over like this we just knew something had to go," said Ayden Connolly, Lake Ariel.

All of the animals made it out safely,  most of them were taken to the Wayne County Fairgrounds while others returned to their farms.  

There will be a lot of cleanup that has to be done here at the fairgrounds once the rain stops and the water recedes before the animals can be brought back in.

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