Comprehensive Team Coverage from the KYW Newsradio Storm Center
President Bush has declared disasters in areas of Pennsylvania, including Bucks County. Hundreds remain evacuated in the Yardley-Lower Makefield area of Bucks County and elsewhere. This will allow residents and businesses in the affected counties to apply for federal assistance. The President signed the disaster declaration while travelling in Tennessee. The counties involved include: Bucks, Northampton, Luzerne, Wyoming and Susquehanna.
As the Delaware River slowly recedes from this week's flooding, New Jersey and Pennsylvania officials are taking a personal look at the damage done by the floodwaters.
Governor Jon Corzine was scheduled to survey flood damage as he prepares to seek federal disaster assistance for the state.
Trenton officials were deciding whether to restart the city's water filtration system. It was shut down on Wednesday because of debris in the river. Mayor Doug Palmer has estimated the city has about 24 hours of drinkable water available.
In Pennsylvania, Sen. Arlen Specter and Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick plan to tour flood-damaged areas with Bucks County officials, while Sen. Rick Santorum and Rep. Don Sherwood assess flood damage in three Susquehanna County towns.
Evacuated residents in Yardley and Lower Makefield are still waiting for the flood waters to recede, so that they can begin to assess the damage to their homes and businesses.
KYW's Mike DeNardo reports that Lower Makefield police chief Ken Coluzzi gazed at more than five feet of water flooding neighboring Yardley, and said that hundreds of homes are still underwater:
"There's about five feet of water in a lot of areas in both Yardley Borough and Lower Makefield Township. We actually lost from the canal to the river. So there's substantial homes back there that still have quite a bit of water in there."
And, he says, it could be Saturday or Sunday before all of the evacuees are allowed back home:
"That's really tough to say. Because we want to make sure all this water is receded first, and we want to make sure all the utilities are safe. Peco did turn off all the power in this area. And if any water got into homes, certainly they need to go in and inspect those homes along with township officials just to make sure it's safe before people can go back in."
Cam Troilo's commercial buildings came one foot from being damaged by the highest floodwaters. He says it's still worth it to live in Yardley:
"Well, you have to take the good with the bad. It certainly has a lot of assets and it's a very lovely town to live in. But again, you do have the water problem that you have to deal with."
Troilo says some residents whose properties are underwater may not feel as he does.
KYW's Tony Romeo reports that Governor Rendell is asking for federal disaster aid for 34 Pennsylvania counties – including all of Southeastern Pennsylvania – as a result of this week’s floods.
Since river crests turned out to be not as high as earlier dire predictions, Rendell says Pennsylvania appears to have dodged a bullet. But he says that statement flies in the face of the dramas that played out across the state, with 13 National Guard, state police and coast guard helicopters in the air:
“Those 13 helicopters made over 1,200 water rescues. In 16 or 17 occasions, actually, the big baskets came down to lift whole families off rooftops or out of houses.”
The governor says a federal disaster declaration would allow the state to use federal provisions such as ice, water, and meals ready-to-eat (MREs). He says those assets will likely be deployed from Willow Grove.
Rendell notes, with irony, the federal government wants to close Willow Grove, even though 225 of the National Guardsmen deployed on flood duty are members of the 111th Air Guard Fighter Wing based there.
In New Jersey, Governor Jon Corzine has continued the state of emergency, which means state offices closed due to flooding on Thursday would remain closed Friday. That includes offices in the capitol complex.
Corzine says the flooding which closed many roads in the Trenton city area has not only had an impact on traffic, but also on the water supply.
New Jersey state officials were warning residents who have fled the rising Delaware River not to go back until the all-clear is given.
KYW’s Brad Segall reports that county and local officials say steps are being taken to alleviate the flooding that shut down a Pennsylvania Turnpike interchange earlier this week.
Upper Dublin and Temple University are working together on an 18-month study to find ways to get rid of the flooding on the roads that surround the Fort Washington Industrial Park.
Township manager Paul Leonard says that area has been flooding for about four decades, but Wednesday’s rain that forced the shutdown of the Fort Washington toll plaza was unusual.
“We think that the Wissahickon was holding so much water from the regional problems, that the water had no place to go. If there’s anything unique, it’s that the water stayed longer.”
Leonard says while it may have been an inconvenience for drivers and some businesses along Pennsylvania Avenue and Commerce Drive, the good news is that there were no serious injuries.
The Lower Bucks chapter of the American Red Cross is accepting donations of cleaning supplies Friday at the William Penn Middle School on Derbyshire Road in Yardley. Donations will be accepted for the Yardley flood victims from 10am until 8pm.
The Red Cross says those items needed include gallon-size containers of bleach, heavy duty trash bags, heavy duty gloves, hand sanitizer, shovels, push brooms, mops, large sponges, and buckets.
Cash donations are also being accepted. You can make a secure donation to the Red Cross by
clicking here.
For more information, call
215-946-4870, extension 101 during office hours.
Montgomery County Community College's Pottstown campus remained closed on Friday.
As the storm cleanup continues, many area leaders are thankful that it wasn’t as bad as it could be.
KYW Newsradio special contributor Larry Kane says it appears that government was ready.
It's certainly not over yet, but what a difference in our flooding crisis compared to the news we heard last summer in New Orleans.
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the individual counties responded with clear communications: warnings to residents, and prepping of the National Guard and special police rescue squads just in case.
The result: order instead of disorder, and the rapid evacuation of those in flood zones like New Hope, Yardley, and Wilkes-Barre.
Something was right about all of this. Maybe the embattled FEMA agency should study what was done here, so rapidly and productively.
Government isn’t always good, but it was this time.
National Weather Service meteorologist Anthony Gigi says the Delaware River crested in Phillipsburg, NJ at a bit over 36 feet. That's more than 14 feet over flood stage.
In Trenton, the water was expected to crest at a little over 25 feet. That would make it the fourth-worst recorded flood in the city, though less than the 28 feet that was projected on Wednesday.
Still, state officials say it will take awhile before flood-damaged homes can be inhabited.
Gov. Corzine says he'll ask the federal government for financial help to clean up homes and businesses.
No deaths or serious injuries have been reported in the Garden State as the result of flooding.
KYW’s Hadas Kuznits reports that Mayor Street toured flood-damaged businesses in Philadelphia on Thursday afternoon.
Street spoke to people pumping out their businesses in Manayunk, one day after floods raised the Schuylkill River to near-record levels. He was assessing damage and pledged to help:
"So we will try to give as much help as we can to individual businesses, and then we will determine the extent to which the city itself can make loans available, grants available. And there might be infrastructure assistance that we can give."
Joseph Cahill, owner of Grape Street Philadelphia, says it took just 3½ hours for the river to flood out his restaurant:
"The deck had almost 35, 36 inches -- almost three feet total."
Cahill says Mayor Street's promise to help is a relief:
"It's good to know that we count."
KYW's Paul Kurtz reports from Lower Makefield and Yardley, Bucks County where there was nothing for people to do but watch helplessly as water poured out of the river and canal.
“Horrible. This is how many times my sister had to contend with this. They still haven’t recovered from the last flood.”
This is the third major flood to hit the area in 18 months. Some residents, like Gary Long, have had enough:
“Yeah, we're done. We're throwing in the towel now. We plan on moving now. This is the third flood, and it's usually one over two years or three years. Now it's once a year. It's just a matter or time."
But no one’s moving until they take care of the more pressing issue of cleaning up -- from yet another flood.
(Top photo: KYW's Tony Hanson)
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