A Sea Of Red

I will be away, manning the EOC (Emergency Op's Ctr) for most of the next 48 hours due to flood emergencies in my municipality here in the Philly 'Burbs.

Delaware River floods at 22 ft, we are currently at 24' and heading for 36' w/ the possibility of major damage.

hope you all miss me

Wow Medic, Make sure to save anyone with the last name Scarborough first That is a lot of water up there. Virginia (Richmond) is getting hit hard with flooding too. DC is crazy up there right now. Be safe man.

Be safe PAmedic.

You mean somebody else besides Houston has to worry about flooding?

Hang in there.

Best of luck to you up there, Medic. To compare the flooding to Agnes is quite impressive. Those were some nasty floods all up and down the mid-Atlantic area. Nonetheless, here is something to keep you company:

We got over 10 inches of rain at my house this week. About an hour west of Medic. Glad I'm heading to the Blue Ridge Pkway. Good Luck Medic.

be safe brother! my prayers are with you and the staff.

appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers- 48 pretty exhausting hrs so far- more to go.

will try to get some pix up here when possible.

I'll be heading through Penn. soon. I may have to jump in the water to test PA's..........CPR skills!!!!!

all right- high and dry after 5 days and very little sleep as I spent the majority of the week in the command post. Thanks for all your thoughts- only a few injuries to MOS and several civilians w/ medical issues thruout. Altogether could've been a lot worse.

We crested at approx 34' - flood height is 22'- so there was no way to prepare or to mitigate this. We lost several roads, 1 police cruiser, and possibly as many as 50 homes along the river corridor suffered major damage up to complete loss; we won't know for a while (until inspections can be made). Approx 200 people in this particular section of my municipality were evacutated or displaced. All bridges, including the 2 local bridges into Jersey survived intact with little to no damage. The same cannot be said of the historic Delaware Canal/State Park. What wasn't destroyed after the major flood LAST year certainly was this time around- approx 7 mil $ worth of damage last time- probably the same again.

In addition to our local PD, we utilized PA State Troopers and approx 24 troops from the PA Nat'l guard to set up check points and secure access for emergency personnel, as well as to protect the flooded area from looting. No major issues arose.

PEMA and FEMA are in the process of evaluating and may offer buyouts to those affected- many people may not elect to return- so there will be an ongoing economic affect up here.

As EMA coordinator- it was my responsibility to oversee all emergency ops, as well as arrange transportation, work with the Red Cross and other groups to bring in field kitchens, set up shelters, keep our vol fire depts supplied and supported, bring together various law enforcement agencies, and keep our twp supervisors advised. We are a relatively small community but the job is quite demanding- I could use about 2 days of sleep!

Here are a few pix- its hard to comprehend the actual scale, though:

(the beginning)


(the result)

PAmedic it sounds like your day was very adventurous.

5 days.

And "Adventurous" is an understatement!

There is about a 100% chance that I would have tried to drive my truck right thru this.

And there is also a 100% chance it would have ended up about 50 yards to your left, right at the spot where the police crusier came to a rest. As a submarine.

This pic was taken as the water receded and we regained access to the area. At the height of the surge- it was close to 12' under water.

PAmedic wrote:5 days.

And "Adventurous" is an understatement!

I guess that term would be an understatement more like chaotic.

more pix

a few more:

Wow, that is quite a bit of water...glad you're safe Medic.

God bless ya- and keep you strong. We were watching flood info. pertaining to NY- we brought my son to camp in North River (above Lake George area). We saw one road that had flooding on either side in the yaght club lots- that didn't stop people from parking in there. We stayed 3 nights in the area; Lake George was beautiful; took steamboat ride. We have to go back this weekend via I90, rte.9 (Warrensburg) and rte.28 to get son and nephew. There is a great little drive in A&W place we ate a couple times. I digress; glad you're safe- and that I didn't live in Philly for long My aunt is in PA working for World Team; I have to e-mail her.