Low-lying parts of the Greater Binghamton Area — from a sewage treatment plant in Johnson City to Walmart in Vestal — were left underwater yesterday after the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee soaked a region where the soil was already saturated after a month of rain.

The 7.8 inches of rain Binghamton experienced on Wednesday — a record for Sept. 7, according to The Weather Channel — had nowhere to go but into creeks and rivers that were already swollen with water.

The Susquehanna River, which borders Downtown Binghamton along with the Chenango River, broke flood records set after a storm in June 2006. The Press & Sun-Bulletin reported that the Susquehanna crested in Binghamton at 25.7 feet at 8 p.m. yesterday, a half-foot higher than the previous high mark.

Binghamton residents described the 2011 flood as significantly more devastating than the proportional flood of June 2006.

“This is much worse,” said Maria Berton of James Street.

Chris Mills, who said that his New Street home suffered total flood damage, agreed.

“Everyone said that 2006 was not like this,” Mills said.

Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan told The Associated Press that the flooding was the “worst in the history of Binghamton, at least since the flood walls were built in the 1930s and ’40s.”

ALBANY, WASHINGTON RESPOND

The flooding prompted a New York State government response yesterday morning and a federal response by yesterday night.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency.

He visited Broome County yesterday and performed a helicopter survey of the area. At a press conference, Cuomo told residents to obey evacuation orders and characterized the flood as one of “historical proportions.”

“You heard the areas that need evacuations,” Cuomo said. “If you are in an evacuation area, evacuate. As I said, it is going to get worse. It is going to get much higher. We have been through this before. By the time it looks that bad, you won’t be able to leave. So leave and leave now.”

The Associated Press reported that the New York National Guard deployed 300 soldiers to the Binghamton area. National Guard soldiers guarded bridges leading into Downtown Binghamton and used high-axle vehicles to ferry people and supplies through the city.

President Barack Obama signed an emergency declaration for New York at midnight, hours after his highly anticipated speech on employment to a joint session of Congress.

An accompanying Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) press release stated that the agency was now authorized to act “to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of catastrophe” in 15 counties in New York State, including Broome.

LOCAL OFFICIALS REACT

20,000 Broome County residents were evacuated as of yesterday evening, nearly one-tenth of the county’s population of about 200,600.

County officials said at a press conference at 5 p.m. yesterday that the evacuation process was ending — barring search and rescue operations — and that they were crafting a plan to reintroduce residents to evacuated areas.

Brett Chellis, the emergency services director for Broome County, admitted that evacuees may be forced to wait days to reenter their homes.

“The reentry plan … is being devised between our staff and the municipalities,” Chellis said. “What this entails basically is to ensure the safety and well-being and security of the areas that have been evacuated and everybody that goes back into them.”

Downtown Binghamton, as well as parts of Union, Johnson City, Endicott, Vestal and the entirety of the Town of Conklin, will remain under mandatory evacuation order until further notice.

Binghamton, Johnson City, Dickinson and Windsor remained under boil water advisories as of early Friday morning.

UNDERWATER NEIGHBORHOODS

Dozens of homes in Johnson City were inundated by flood waters, as was the Binghamton-Johnson City Joint Sewage Treatment Plant, according to multiple reports from the Press & Sun-Bulletin. The sewage treatment plant was forced to shut down.

Johnson City Mayor Dennis Hannon told the Press & Sun that “this is going to be a long recovery.”

Neighborhoods bordering the Susquehanna on Binghamton’s Southside were heavily flooded — Conklin Avenue was covered by at least five feet of water, while several houses on Rush Avenue were half-submerged beneath water that residents described as tainted by sewage.

Vince Innarella’s home at 26 Rush Ave., where he had lived for 38 years, was flooded with three feet of water on the first floor. He said his house was fine through Wednesday night, until the water entered his home around noon yesterday.

“Once the [flood] walls broke, it came fast,” Innarella said.

FLOODING ELSEWHERE

There have been no reported deaths in the Binghamton area due to Tropical Storm Lee, but at least 11 deaths have been blamed on the storm: four in central Pennsylvania, two in northern Virginia and one in Maryland, along with four others killed when the storm came ashore on the Gulf Coast last week.

100,000 people in total were evacuated from areas around the Susquehanna River. According to a report on The Weather Channel’s website, Lee has dumped over 2.4 trillion gallons of water into the Susquehanna’s watershed, causing the river’s worst flooding in nearly 40 years.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett warned of “a public health emergency because sewage treatment plants are underwater and no longer working.”

“Flood water is toxic and polluted,” he said. “If you don’t have to be in it, keep out.”

— Reporting was contributed by The Associated Press.