Too Much Rain in Pennsylvania Funny
The rain came and didn't stop for hours. Neither did Casey South and first responders as the heavy rains of a summer storm drowned his Croydon Acres neighborhood.
South was out most of Monday night helping to rescue people farther down the block on Spencer Drive who were trapped in their homes in what the National Weather Service would later describe as a 100-year flood caused by torrential rain.
"I've lived here 10 years and spent most of the evening yesterday helping families and everyone else get out of the houses and evacuate with the fire department," he said, adding that neighbors who have lived there a lot longer told him they hadn't seen flooding like this storm since the 1960s. "Two boats were here."
The rescues in the neighborhood off Bristol Pike were among many Monday night as the sky opened up and a furious storm didn't pass for about four hours, dumping 6 to 10 inches on hardest hit areas.
"This is estimated to be a 100-year flood," the weather service tweeted Monday night.
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Tuesday was spent drying out, cleaning up and surveying the damage.
County, state and local officials were still assessing the damage from the storm late Tuesday afternoon.
"It's flooded in areas where typically you don't see it, or of a level never seen before," Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie said as he toured damage in Bristol Borough, where homes may have to be totaled and Grundy Tower, a home for older residents, sustained flooding to its first floor.
He said he thought it was "a little too soon" to determine if a disaster declaration should be issued but that the municipalities needed to figure out their losses.
There were 1,171 emergency and non-emergency calls for assistance between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m., which was almost double the normal rate at that time, according to a Bucks County news release.
About 450 of those were emergency calls to 911, the release states.
"I have beach towels all over right now," Karen Dipko, of Spencer Drive, said. "It was quite an interesting night."
She was at work when the storm hit, and came home to find her living room carpets soaked. Dipko used beach towels and puppy pads to soak up the water, while keeping her dog from going out into her back yard, which was completely submerged.
As she spoke, a large flatbed tow truck came down the street, heading toward two cars still submerged in water. It created a wake as it passed.
South said that every time a truck drove through the water still in the street, it sent waves into neighbors' homes.
It could take days or more to recover from the floods that submerged cars and forced dozens from their homes in Bristol Borough, Croydon in Bristol Township and Bensalem.
The summer storm also saturated the ground with so much water that the region could see additional flooding with even a slight amount of rain.
"There's so much rain in the ground right now," said National Weather Service meteorologist Patrick O'Hara on Tuesday. "If even a small amount of rain were to fall, that could cause some flooding."
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While residents assessed the damage and began cleanup, they described conditions some had never seen.
"I didn't know we were going to have a pool party," said Joan Merritt, who lives in the Glen Hollow Apartments off Newportville Road near Spencer Drive, where cars sat still submerged Tuesday afternoon.
Spencer resident Matt Briegel said that Monday night water was 6 feet deep in the street.
In nearby Bensalem, at least 60 people at Lafayette Gardens in the 500 block of Bristol Pike were evacuated, Bensalem Director of Public Safety Fred Harran said. No serious injuries were reported, he said.
Bensalem's engineer was on scene Monday night to evaluate the safety of the buildings at the condominium complex, after an estimated 10 feet of flood water swallowed the first-floor units, Harran said. The township set up a temporary emergency shelter for residents on Monday night at Robert K. Shafter Middle School, Harran said.
Most residents, though, had found other accommodations for the night, and the shelter was closed Tuesday.
Lafayette Gardens residents were allowed to collect personal items Tuesday, but it's unknown when, or if, they'll be able to return home, officials said.
In Bristol Borough, four houses on Pond Street were "condemned to a point until they can be checked out" to ensure they weren't structurally damaged before the residents can move back in, said Council President Ralph DiGuiseppe on Tuesday morning.
Two of the houses were vacant; residents of the other two were staying with relatives, he said. By the afternoon, county officials were there surveying the damage.
Harvie said the homes on Pond Street had 3 to 5 feet of water in them and might be totaled because of structural damage. He also surveyed damage in the Harriman section of the borough to check out homes on Harrison Street that sustained heavy flooding. He also inspected the first floor of the Grundy Tower, which was also flooded.
"We're dealing with a lot of flooding in basements and structural damage to homes," DiGuiseppe said.
Mill Street businesses appeared to have weathered the storm well, though their back parking lot had been flooded.
But on McKinley Street, Veronica Serrano was having a car crisis.
"My (Ford) Focus and Chevy Equinox are totally flooded," she said. "I can't start them. I don't know what to do."
Across the street, neighbors Ray and Mary Bunda marveled at how quickly the water rose in their neighborhood.
"We get water sometimes, but nothing like this. We came home. Our car was flooded and we got water in the basement," Ray said. "It came up to our second step," added Mary.
DiGuiseppe said borough work crews were out Tuesday cleaning drains clogged with debris from the storm in case more rain came. He added that "a lot of homes in town" have water in their basements in Bristol.
Back in Bristol Township's Croydon Acres, neighbors were trying to make sense of the floods.
Linda Diernbach, who lives on Garfield Avenue, was on her way back to her home Monday when her husband called saying water was going into the main floor of their home. When she got to her neighborhood, she had to go a different route around to avoid seriously flooded roads.
"Our road was covered," she said.
She was up for hours tearing up carpets and clearing damage. Diernbach, who has lived there for 31 years, said the flooding was rare in the neighborhood, even when larger storms like Superstorm Sandy hit the area.
"Never seen it like that," she said of the storm.
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How much rain did Bucks get?
More rain was in the forecast Tuesday with storms possible throughout the rest of the week.
While Lower Bucks neighborhoods were hit hard, Newtown experienced two inches of rain while Doylestown and communities further north received less than an inch of precipitation.
Meteorologists are unsure whether it was a single thunderstorm or a series of weather events trailing each other during a four-hour event that ended shortly after 6 p.m.
Air in the upper atmosphere was very still, O'Hara said. "What made this one unusual was the storm formed very quickly and stayed focused over one area."
Scott Cooper, who lives in Croydon Acres, was kayaking on Spring Avenue, headed in the direction of Garfield Avenue near Spencer Drive on Tuesday. He was surveying the flooding to report back to others on a local Facebook group.
He said he paddled three blocks before getting to a dry area not far from Garfield Avenue.
Cooper said when the rain came down, he thought it would pass by and leave shortly. "It didn't," he said. "It just stayed over Croydon."
Cooper expressed concern about future rain in the forecast after some of his neighbors experienced flooding in their homes.
"If we get another inch or two, it's going to be really bad for some of these people," he said.
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During the storm, first responders were inundated with calls for service. In addition to rescues, those calls includeed water in the roads, downed wires and road hazards.
David Skutnik, spokesman for the Red Cross of Southeastern Pennsylvania, said Red Cross officials and county officials are working with those who have been displaced.
According to PECO, most power outages reported Monday night have been restored, but about 157 customers remained without power Tuesday morning.
What is a 100-year flood?
The term "100-year flood," according to the U.S. Geological Survey, describes an extreme hydrologic event as a flood having a 100-year recurrence interval. In short, that means "according to historical data about rainfall and stream stage," the probability of reaching that level is once in 100 years.
"In other words, a flood of that magnitude has a 1 percent chance of happening in any year," according to usgs.gov.
But that doesn't mean you can't see a 100-year flood more than once in a lifetime.
"The term '100-year flood' is used in an attempt to simplify the definition of a flood that statistically has a 1-percent chance of occurring in any given year. Likewise, the term '100-year storm' is used to define a rainfall event that statistically has this same 1-percent chance of occurring," according to the USGS. "In other words, over the course of 1 million years, these events would be expected to occur 10,000 times. But, just because it rained 10 inches in one day last year doesn't mean it can't rain 10 inches in one day again this year."
Reporting damage
Harvie said any federal disaster relief is determined county by county, so Bucks could not apply for federal or state disaster aid with Philadelphia where homes near the Poquessing Creek, which forms the border between the city and Bucks, also suffered damage.
Residents and business owners should report damage to their municipalities.
Damage in Bensalem may be reported to 215-633-3741, while damage in Bristol Borough and Bristol Township may reported to 215-788-3828, ext. 12, and 267-812-2938, respectively.
Those who are displaced from the storm can call the American Red Cross at 1-800-733-2768 and select option four, according to the county.
James McGinnis and Jo Ciavaglia contributed to this report.
Source: https://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/story/news/2021/07/13/lower-bucks-county-100-year-flood-bensalem-croydon-summer-storm/7948033002/
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