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High tide of the Schuylkill River after Tropical Storm Isaiah. (Elizabeth Rowe / AP)
Updated at 4:02 p.m.
As Philadelphia’s dominance continues in white since Tropical Storm Isaiah hit the region Tuesday, bringing heavy rains and winds, a flash flood warning remains in place for southeastern Pennsylvania.
Counties in Philadelphia, Delaware, Chester and can continue to enjoy the immediate water grades until Friday morning.
“The soil remains saturated in the region due to recent heavy rains related to Tropical Storm Isaiah,” the National Weather Service said. Given Thursday’s intermittent storms and showers, “this will cause flash flooding as usual.”
Small streams and streams will also be vulnerable to flooding, the NWS warned, especially those that remain above due to past rains.
– Montco DPS (@MCpublicsafety) August 6, 2020
Power outages in and out of suburban Philadelphia continued until Thursday afternoon, and PECO reported that approximately 28,000 affected consumers in Bucks, Montgomery, Chester and Delaware counties together. Only about 770 Philadelphia consumers were affected.
Three connected barges were removed that were released from their moorings on the Schuylkill River by heavy rains Tuesday night and crashed into the Vine Street Bridge. I-676, which crosses the bridge, has reopened in both directions.
The SEPTA service was suspended Wednesday morning due to the bridge collision due to considerations that barges can also hit the Market Street connector bridge.
PennDOT inspected the Vine Street Bridge on Wednesday and discovered it structurally sound, PennDOT’s deputy director of communications Brad Rudolph said. Using what he called a “spy crane,” staff inspected the bottom of the bridge and decided that the maximum noticeable damage was in a reinforcement, necessarily a plate welded on a beam that is helping to prevent the bridge from deforming.
Rudolph stated that reinforcement “isn’t what it looks like” for structural integrity, but that the bridge will likely be partially closed at some point in the long run so it can be replaced.
Philadelphia officials said Wednesday afternoon that the recovery of Tropical Storm Isaiah would take time, with some neighborhoods affected than others.
The barges that broke the typhoon were used to dredge parts of the Schuylkill. The project, which was overseen through the Army Corps of Engineers and a contractor, Atlantic Subsea, Inc., was introduced in the spring to improve rowing situations on the river.
Army Corps spokesman Steve Rochotte said it took two tugboats to move barges away from the bridge. Lately they’re being inspected and they’ll be able to start dredging again.
“This has delayed the project,” Rochotte said, “but we’ll work with the team to find out exactly what it’s going to mean in the coming weeks.”
Rudolph stated that the Corps and Atlantic Subsea agreed to upload an additional anchor to the barges to avoid long-term landings.
PennDOT is still in road maintenance throughout the state due to flooding and other damage caused by Tropical Storm Isaiah, but Rudolph said the bridge closure is the biggest headache.
“It’s a road that goes downtown,” he said. “We had a command center there and we were looking for hour after hour.”
About a share of a million New Jerseyns were still unpowered Thursday morning after being knocked out by Tropical Storm Isaiah in the previous week.
Utilities suffering to repair electricity to consumers across the state said they faced some of the most serious typhoon damage since Super Typhoon Sandy in 2012.
“Our worst absolute in recent Sandy history, of course, where we had a maximum of two million electricity consumers without power,” said Lauren Ugorji, spokesperson for PES G. “That’s a quarter of that, yet it’s still one of the highest gravity we’ve had in recent years.”
As of Thursday morning, there were still 140,000 PES-G electricity consumers. The company hoped to be able to repair 85% of those consumers until Friday night and all “difficult restorations” until Monday.
Jersey Central Power and Light, which experienced Isaiah’s number of power outages, still had about 330,000 energyless consumers. Some recovery estimates on the company’s online outage map were only On Tuesday night.
Atlantic City Electric had only 20,000 consumers in the dark, compared to 200,000 without force at the height of the storm. He estimated that most of the remaining consumers would regain their electricity on Thursday night and that citizens of the maximum broken spaces have to wait until Saturday night to be restored.
“At this time, the maximum of seriously damaged spaces is Atlantic and Cape May counties, however, there may be other spaces where we have noticed significant damage to the local electrical system,” said Frank Tedesco, ass spokesman. “This painting requires a lot of paint and time: damaged poles and felled trees.”
Service on some NJ Transit rail lines was suspended on Thursday and others were operating on a weekend schedule, the Northeast Corridor line.
– NJ TRANSIT (@NJTRANSIT) August 6, 2020
Buses, soft trains and Access Link operated at their normal schedules from Monday to Friday.
Delia King is one of the hundred citizens of Delco displaced by Tropical Storm Isaiah. “A good day, ” he said. “The next day, boom, let’s go.”
In Delaware County, recovery efforts continue, even though new replicas of Isaiah are emerging.
In Upper Darby, about a hundred families were displaced tuesday night after the floods destroyed their homes and left them homeless.
Twenty other Upper Chichester families will sign up for hotel rooms provided through the Red Cross on Thursday night, according to Tim Boyce, the county’s director of emergency management.
“The flooding is so wonderful that they’re going through to have to go through electrical work, and their radiators look dead,” Boyce said.
He added that the initial accommodation only lasted 4 days after a serious event, “but as other people are located two, 3 days later, we have to pass and get an extension in those days.”
Boyce’s team is working with government officials to provide types of typhoon relief. But direct monetary assistance, which displaced families in Upper Darby want most, may not be available, he said.
“This threshold is higher and you want a presidential declaration to finance it. We just haven’t noticed the recent statements,” Boyce said.
At 8 p.m., 80 families, or about 175 people, were in transitional accommodation in Delaware County. Some of the first families had left the shelter, while others were still searching.
Heavy rains and flooding caused by the typhoon have left dust and debris in Philadelphia. Schuylkill Banks will perform a cleanup at the center on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. under the Walnut Street Bridge.
The organization said it would supply equipment and gloves, but asked participants to bring their own water and wear clothes and shoes that they can muddy, as well as a mask.
Volunteers are invited to verify their presence at Schuylkill banks here.
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State-owned enterprises reported that 6,659 families and businesses remained without electricity, with more than one million.
Philadelphia officials said Wednesday afternoon that the recovery of Tropical Storm Isaiah would take time, with some neighborhoods affected than others.
The National Weather Service has warned that destructive winds and flash floods are the dangers to the region.
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