Hurricane Ivan blew into Carbon and Schuylkill counties Friday evening, dropping a half-foot of rain and causing flooding, power outages and evacuations throughout the area.

Evacuations were reported locally in Palmerton and Kidder Township. In the region, there were evacuations in Bangor, Bethlehem and Nazareth. Fire departments in virtually every community were summoned due to a tremendous amount of flooded basements.

The Carbon County Emergency Operations Center was opened while a state of emergency was declared county-wide. Among the municipalities left without power in sections of their communities were Palmerton, Lehighton, Jim Thorpe, Summit Hill, Tamaqua, Kidder and Penn Forest townships.