Inside the devastation of Ida in Bridgeport
UPPER MERION >> After Hurricane Ida inundated the area last week with intense rain, residents throughout Montgomery County spent days cleaning up, drying out, and regrouping after the devastating damage left in Ida’s wake.
Gov. Tom Wolf paid a visit to one of the area’s hardest-hit spots, Bridgeport, Wednesday, Sept. 8. By then, some of the damage and destruction had been cleared away.
Fred Remelius, director of operations at Upper Merion Area School District, had already documented on Sept. 5 the destruction of Ida. Through posts on his Facebook page, Remelius created an homage to the small borough, and the residents, borough employees
and first responders who banded together to deal with the devastation.
With his permission, The Times Herald is sharing Fred Remelius’ posts and his photos.
Sept. 5 at 8:26 p.m.: “I guess we all assume that when the mind-numbing floodwaters from the headlines and front recede the story is over. Here are some pictures of the human tragedy in Bridgeport, PA, a small section of the school district where I work. The area isn’t very big, maybe a ¼ mile long on 1st, 2nd & 3rd Streets. Hauling away an endless stream of waterlogged personal belongings was the primary mission of the Borough. Crews would start on one end and cleaned all of the debris and by the time they reached the end of the street the residents had filled it again.”
Within that post, a Bridgeport resident commented:
Donations needed for the neighborhood. 2nd street, Bridgeport PA tent drop off…
Baby wipes sanitary wipes
We don’t have water that we can use - people are dropping off bottled water but maybe one or two Coleman stove so we can boil some water
Food (shelf stable only) - fruit too (apples oranges bananas (not too much!!!) Water jugs
More lanterns battery operated plus batteries Head lamps Batteries AAA & AA COOLERS
ICE (Bags of ice and even Styrofoam coolers)
Extension cords. LONG so neighbors can share electric from generators (there are only a few Generators on the blocks) Generators… Hoses to clean away stuff
Push brooms Simple green Boxes FOR packing or to hail trash or sort Tubs
EMPTY Cans of gas for generator - please do not bring gas.
Sept. 5 at 9:26 p.m.: One thing that caught
my eye today was EVERY electric meter in the flooded area was removed by the utility company to prevent fires and electrocutions. But, what do you need to run wet / dry vacs, fans. dehumidifiers, sump pump, lights, power tools, etc. in order to dry out the flooded basement and first floor? You got it, electricity. To make matters worse, the utilities can’t turn the power back on until the electric panel is inspected which means a 100 year old house needs to be brought up to current code. Low rent landlords will just walk away from many of the buildings because it’s too expensive leaving the low income residents permanently homeless. No sure the residents who were work hard at cleaning out their homes realize that likelihood.
Sept. 5 at 10:27 p.m.: One of the absurdities of the day was while one crew from the utility company
yanked out all of the electrical meters in the flooded area of Bridgeport, another one of their crews was very aggressively replacing all of the natural gas meters. No electricity to run your refrigerator or home heater but you’ll have gas for stove and inoperable home heater? One of the crew members told me they had already replaced well over 100 meters.
Sept. 5 at 10:45 p.m.: I remember years ago really whining when my sump pump quit during a storm and we got maybe 6” inches of clean water in our basement and we had to clean it up. Note the water line across the door and walls of this house and the dryer vent in the basement window. Imagine discarding all of your stuff, furniture and appliances that were filled with river muck and water in your basement and up to that water line in your house. I’m an extraordinarily blessed and lucky person.