Community Corner

Aftermath of Irene: Flooding, Evacuations, Downed Wires and Trees, Thousands Without Power

Hurricane Irene picked up speed, fierce winds and a tornado warning on Saturday night, leaving the area with a number of damages.

Hurricane Irene left the greater Philadelphia area on Sunday morning, leaving behind a number of damages in several towns with her.

Flooding

Some areas like experienced some of the most severe flooding. The Schuylkill River in West Conshohocken overflowed into business and corporate centers, parking lots, the Conshohocken SEPTA station and apartment/condominium complexes. In addition to train tracks and numerous other items including cars, a small, short-haired brown dog was found floating in the water at Bicentennial Park in Plymouth. 

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In the and border, Paxon Hollow Road at Dog Kennel Road was impassable due to major flooding. The nearby park had turned into a large river, leaving roads very dangerous. Meanwhile in , parts of Glendale Road had also experienced flooding.

Other areas of major flooding included the area underneath the commuter tunnel in , which already had about a foot of water by Saturday evening. Flash flooding had also occurred around the Lower Merion area. Police issued out a statement by Saturday afternoon requesting, "that everyone restrict travel immediately and not use the roadways until Sunday afternoon...many locations are experiencing flooding conditions. The locations are too numerous to list."

Find out what's happening in Radnorwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Parts of , such as the creek area around Iven Avenue and Gulph Creek had already started to flood by Satruday evening. North Wayne and Walnut avenues had also experienced flooding. A home on on Lancaster Avenue also had major flooding in its front yard.

In , the susceptible flood-prone areas of Crum Creek near Lewis Run in the Echo Valley section of the township had overflowed from the storm.

Evacuations

Residents who resided in heavily flooded areas were evacuated from Saturday evening through Sunday morning.

In Tredyffrin on Saturday afternoon, large scale evacuations were underway in the Glenhardie community of Tredyffrin. According to fire and township officials, they had planned for this possibility, especially around Trout Creek.

In Radnor, two evacuation notices were sent out by the township to residents around Little Darby Creek of Malin Road, Briarwood Road and Amherst Circle and residents located on Gulph Creek on Willow Avenue were evacuated to the emergency shelter at Radnor High School.

Early Saturday evening, Marple officials ordered an emergency evacuation for residents around Darby Creek.

On Sunday morning, evacuations continued for Plymouth-Whitemarsh. Residents residing in high tower apartment complexes around the Schuylkill River were evacuated by township police.

Downed Wires and Trees

Numerous amounts of reports and calls were made and reported for downed wires and trees in almost every township in the greater Philadelphia area. One of the most amount of reports made for downed trees were reported in the Bryn Mawr-Gladwyne area.

Power Outages

Thousands were without power throughout the storm. On Sunday morning around 6 a.m., PECO's outage map had estimated more than 3,500 residents in each of the surrounding counties–Chester, Delaware Montgomery and Philadelphia–were all without power.

Though some households received their power back throughout the day on Sunday, many were still without power by early evening Sunday.


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