Buyout Holdout Relishes ‘Ghost Town’ Life

Charles Lowe’s neighborhood is a ghost town. The stop signs are gone, the nearby houses empty.

After a torrent of ice and water from the Tunkhannock Creek devastated the Lazybrook development a year ago, the government offered to buy everyone out. Of the 75 households, 74 agreed.

Not Lowe.

“Ever since the neighbors left, the turkeys are coming back,” he said, stubbing out his fifth cigarette of the hour, hefting a fresh eight-point deer rack and taking a deep breath of the country air. “Peace and quiet, a beautiful view. Now I can yell all I want--there’s nobody to hear me.”

By summertime, bulldozers will have taken everything away except the home Lowe shares with his wife and daughter. Several other houses already are gone, some torn down, others removed and sold to new owners. One sits on a trailer bed blocking the road.

Lowe, a carpet installer and avid hunter, has simple reasons for staying in the northeastern Pennsylvania mountains: He likes where he lives, and he can’t afford to move to another place like it.

But John Comey, the spokesman for the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, has simple reasons for why the Lowes should follow their neighbors to higher ground:

“When communities are flooded, you have loss to private property. You have the potential impact on the taxpayers. You’ve got the public health and safety issue,” he said. “Twenty people died in flooding last year.”

When Lazybrook was built in the early 1970s, the boundaries of the Tunkhannock Creek flood plain were not mapped, although locals knew the old fields flooded from time to time.

City folks jumped at the chance to escape nearby Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, and the lots sold quickly. Lowe signed up for the monthly mortgage of $117 on the first day he visited.

Over the next 25 years, the creek, a major tributary of the Susquehanna River, jumped its banks a few times. But it never strayed far enough to scare anyone away.

Then came the winter of 1995-96.

“It was the worst,” said Carl Gable, a township commissioner and 65-year resident. “It was like small icebergs were overrunning the area. It knocked some houses right off their foundations.”

Lowe watched as the brown mush overtook house after house. The flow stopped just a few feet from his backyard.

Fifty-three Pennsylvania counties were declared federal disaster areas, making them eligible for the buyout. State officials forwarded 55 applications from communities, and the federal government chose the Tunkhannock neighborhood first.

Lowe watched neighbor after neighbor take the buyout at a cost of $6.3 million to the government.

The township’s bid for the Lowes’ home has increased $14,000, now totaling $86,000. Last month, the local water authority hinted that it may not continue service for only one home.

For now, Lowe will stay. He said the trauma has taken a toll on his wife and their daughter. For the right price, maybe they’ll go. But only for the right price.