{"id":19292,"date":"2025-10-30T02:30:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T02:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/19292\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T02:30:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T02:30:09","slug":"bethlehem-prepares-for-storm-checks-leaf-covered-drain-for-potential-flooding-allentown-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/19292\/","title":{"rendered":"Bethlehem prepares for storm, checks leaf-covered drain for potential flooding | Allentown Area"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BETHLEHEM, Pa. (WFMZ) &#8212; Public works crews throughout the Lehigh Valley are checking leaf-covered storm drains ahead of the coming storm.<\/p>\n<p>Heavy rain and strong winds are on the way. Mix in falling leaves and you get clogged storm drains and potential flooding.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We do have crews who are going to go around the city during the storm throughout the day and look for any trouble areas,&#8221; said Michael Alkhal, Bethlehem&#8217;s Director of Public Works.<\/p>\n<p>Alkhal tells us the moderate drought our region is experiencing is working in our favor for this storm.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A lot of the initial rain will be absorbed as opposed to runoff,&#8221; Alkhal explained.<\/p>\n<p>While leaves are falling, many are still up in the trees.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s where most of the concerns would be, if leaves are carried by the rainwater to the drains and clogged the drains,&#8221; Alkhal stated.<\/p>\n<p>If you see a leaf covered storm drain, use a rake, broom or shovel to remove the piles on top, then dispose of them in leaf collection bags.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. (WFMZ) &#8212; Public works crews throughout the Lehigh Valley are checking leaf-covered storm drains ahead of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,13521,13520,13519,157,8931,28,13457],"class_list":{"0":"post-19292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news","11":"tag-director-of-public-works","12":"tag-drain","13":"tag-drainage","14":"tag-lehigh-valley","15":"tag-michael-alkhal","16":"tag-pennsylvania","17":"tag-plumbing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}