By John Latimer And Les Stewart
The Lebanon Daily News
Copyright 2007 Lebanon Daily News
All Rights Reserved

LEBANON, Pa. — Yesterday's sudden afternoon rainstorm created some exciting moments for city firefighters, police and a daring soul who had voluntarily climbed into a stormwater channel.

Police received a call about 4:15 p.m., shortly after the deluge began, reporting that a group of six teenagers was in the Quittapahilla Creek flood channel at 12th and Cumberland streets. When police arrived, they found the group in an unfenced area, and at least one was in the catch basin attempting to enter the channel, said Capt. Daniel Wright.

They were not in any immediate danger, Wright said, and were told to leave the area. None was charged, he said.

During that incident, police spotted a man about a block away standing on a concrete ledge in the channel where it flows behind businesses in the 1300 block of Cumberland Street, and firefighters were called.

Initially, rescuers believed it was a homeless man, according to Deputy Fire Commissioner Chris Miller.

Instead, it turned out to be 43-year-old Wayne Gamble of 635 Walnut St., who was seeking shelter from the storm underneath an unused railroad bridge that crosses the channel.

Gamble had fashioned a rope out of an electrical cord to lower himself down the steep concrete side of the channel, Miller said. When firefighters spotted him, he threw a can of beer into the channel, Miller added.

Firefighters lowered a ladder into the channel, and Gamble climbed out unharmed. He was charged with public drunkenness, Wright said.

Yesterday's excitement was caused by a storm with an unusual path, said Accu-Weather meteorologist Dave Samuhel. Most of the area's weather comes from the west, he said, but this storm came out of the northeast, pushed by a large low-pressure system swirling in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New England.

"We were able to get warm enough to make the atmosphere unstable, which caused storms everywhere across eastern Pennsylvania," said Samuhel. "In Lebanon, there were a couple of storms in the area that were moving so quickly that it seemed like it was one storm." The thunderstorm lasted about 90 minutes and dumped about a half-inch of rain, causing damage in isolated pockets of the county while leaving others virtually untouched.