Flooding expected from Ida remnants
POTTSTOWN >> Ida’s downpours arrived in the area a little after 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Heavy rain fell at first, followed by a steady torrent, and like clockwork, all the trouble spots around town began to fill up.
A water rescue call on South Keim Street, where the road dips beneath the Norfolk Southern train tracks, was quickly dealt with and barriers put up to prevent another occurrence.
Barriers were already up on College Drive. It was a good thing because, by 5:15 p.m., the water filling the underpass beneath the train tracks was already thigh-high and rising fast.
Residents of the perennially flooded Walnut Street watch the rainfall anxiously from their windows and porches.
Twice in the past three years, the Manatawny has come knocking and it was looking like Ida wanted in.
From 4 to 5:45 p.m., the Montgomery County WebCad listed no fewer than nine water rescues, the majority of them in Upper Merion, Lower Providence and Collegeville, where the Perkiomen Creek is expected to rise from 1-foot early Wednesday to nearly 13.9 feet by 8 a.m. Thursday.
In fact, by 5:45 Wednesday, the east branch near Schwenksville was already approaching 6 feet.
At 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, stream heights had already passed the 6-foot mark at the gauge on the main branch at Graterford.
Adding to the meteorological mayhem, tornado watches were issued throughout the region.
CBS News reported tornados touching down near the Willow Grove and the Horsham area. It also passed along reports of a tornado touching down in Oxford.
Gov. Tom Wolf had issued an emergency decla
“Drivers are urged to buckle up, slow down and drive at a speed appropriate for the current conditions. Ensure your headlights are on when your windshield wipers are on. Do not walk or drive through standing or moving water. Turn around, don’t drown.”
— Major Robert Krol, director of the Bureau of Patrol with the Pennsylvania State Police
ration before the first raindrop fell.
“Drivers are urged to buckle up, slow down and drive at a speed appropriate for the current conditions,” said Major Robert Krol, director of the Bureau of Patrol with the Pennsylvania State Police. “Ensure your headlights are on when your windshield wipers are on. Do not walk or drive through standing or moving water. Turn around, don’t drown.”
According to the Montgomery County Department of Public Safety, “even after the rain stops falling early Thursday morning, the river flood threat will continue. The Schuylkill River at Norristown is projected to crest at 17.4 feet (moderate flood stage) at 2 p.m. Thursday.
Waters are not expected to recede below flood stage until midday Friday.
If you lose power during or after the storm, do not call 9-1-1 simply to report the outage.
Montgomery County’s Emergency Communications Center will already be extremely busy with storm-related incidents.
Call your local utility provider to report the outage, or utilize their website or mobile application:
• PECO: 1-800-8414141 or https://www.peco. com/Outages/ReportAnOutage/Pages/default.aspx
• PPL: 1-800-342-5775 or https://www.pplelectric.com/site/Outagesand-Issues
• Met-Ed: 1-888-5444877 or https://www.firstenergycorp.com/outages_ help.html
Always assume that all power lines are live, even if you lose power in your home or business. Never go near or touch a fallen power line.