John Fischer's Philadelphia
Vol. 1 - Number 45 - 09/16/99
Special Edition - Hurricane Floyd Floods Philly
09/16/99 7:00 PM
Over 170,000 PECO customers are now without power. Over 111,000 customers have lost power and already been restored. PECO still estimates that some of these remaining outages may last from 48-72 hours and they predict that additional outages may still occur.
In Bear, Delaware, there are still no signs of the two girls, ages 11 and 12 that were sucked into a storm drain. Police continue their search for the young girls but hopes are now becoming slim. The 8 year old sister of one of the girls survived by holding her breath as she was carried over 200 feet through the storm pipe
In New Jersey, hopes remain in Gloucester County in Logan Township and Gibbstown that the Delaware River can be held back and not flood the Repopo Creek. As of this hour, the levy continues to hold and there is hope that no massive flooding may occur.
9/16/99 5:30 PM
Floyd is no longer a hurricane. It is now officially a tropical storm. The rain and wind has already stopped in the far western and southern areas. Authorities warn that flood conditions and their associated danger will continue throughout the evening as the next high tide approaches.
Channel 10 reports total rainfall at the NBC 10 Studios at 9.18 inches, at Temple University 7.59 inches and in Newark, Delaware at Glasgow High School 8.86 inches.
Chestertown, Chester County reports 14 inches of rain. Philadelphia International Airport reports 6.4 inches of rain, an official one day record for Philadelphia. Total accumulation for the storm at Philadelphia Airport is 6.9 inches.
9/16/99 4:00 PM
Pennsylvania Governor Ridge has declared a state of emergency for southeastern Pennsylvania. States of emergency have previously been declared in Delaware and New Jersey.
All City of Philadelphia non-essential workers have been dismissed.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike is closed from Valley Forge west to Doylestown.
Jet skis and boats are being used to rescue residents of the Cobbs Creek area of the city where Cobbs Creek is overflowing its banks.
Fire officials had to remove numerous commuters from a SEPTA R6 train in Conshohocken that failed to make it through high waters.
71000 people are currently without power and PECO has stated that it may be into the weekend before power is resumed. Additional outages are expected as the evening goes on.
9/16/99 3:30 PM
Floyd made his visit to the Philadelphia area on Thursday with record rainfall and severe flash floods. Rainfall amounts in Delaware County where I live exceeded 8 inches often falling at the rate of over an inch an hour.
The company where I am working is in New Jersey and closed before noon, so I was able to get home and follow the coverage of the storm on NBC News 10. Channel 10 features John Bolaris and Glenn "Hurricane" Schwartz and both are to be commended for their excellent coverage of the storm.
Even when I came home around noon, I-95 near the Airport was partially flooded in the right lane. At one point a motorist who was not content to travel at a reasonable speed sped by me on the right forcing a wall of water into my car and causing me to spin about 45 degrees. Luckily there was no one behind me. I saw lots of cars spinning, surfing and even two cars collide with each other as each changed lanes, one from the right to the left, the other from the left to the right.
In Delaware County, there was severe flooding in most of the towns. In Lansdowne three children climbed a tree to escape flood waters of five feet deep. A fireman attempting to rescue the children fell into the water and has luckily been rescued. The major roads in Darby Borough were all under several feet of water. The small town of Aston is entirely closed due to flooding.
The lanes along the eastbound Schuylkill Expressway have sustained severe flooding and falling debris from the cliffs that border the expressway on the right. The city is particularly worried about severe flooding in the area of Cobbs Creek where the water is rising by the minute.
The Port of Philadelphia has closed to all shipping and the Schuylkill River is expected to flood over its banks by at least two feet this evening.
U.S. Airways and most other airlines have cancelled all flights into and out of Philadelphia until at least this evening.
In Bear, New Castle County, Delaware three children were swept into a drainage creek. One was rescued but the others remain missing as of this writing and as the hours pass hope diminishes.
While the New Jersey shore escaped heavy damage throughout most of the day, the winds and storm surge increased as the day went by and the Floyd's eye passed by. Luckily, however, the storm surge occurred well after high tide. Authorities seemed pleased that the damage to property appeared minimal, most likely due to far less severe winds than expected. Beach erosion in Cape May County, however, was severe in many areas.
Doppler radar shows massive amounts of rainfall in the eastern part of Maryland along the Chesapeake Bay and into central Delaware.
As of 3:00 p.m. the weather forecast called for the heaviest rains and heaviest wins to be passing through the area in the next two to three hours. There are fears of major flooding in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey from local creeks as well as the Delaware River as forecasts call for waters cresting in excess of four, five and six feet above normal.
For homeowners, flood waters such as have seen in this storm are the worst possible scenario since flood damage is not covered under a homeowners policy and few in this area have flood insurance. For property/casualty insurance carriers instead of facing large numbers of covered property claims, they are likely to encounter massive numbers of claims for flooded vehicles.
We'll be updating this column as the evening progresses.
Well, that's my spin on things. I'll catch you again soon. You can join me in our chat room almost every evening - Philly Chat - or drop me a note at philadelphia.guide@about.com. Also, be sure to check out our new Philadelphia Forum where you can share your comments and feelings, ask questions, post classifieds and much more
If you missed any of our recent columns you can still catch them:
John Fischer's Philadelphia 08/27/99
John Fischer's Philadelphia 08/30/99
John Fischer's Philadelphia 09/02/99
John Fischer's Philadelphia 09/07/99
John Fischer's Philadelphia 09/13/99