(Aerial view of Pennsylvania flooding accompanying a story about Red Cross shelters set up nearby — including one in this county.)
The flooding (which I discussed yesterday) appears headed from bad to worse:
The remarkable siege of rain that has left a deadly legacy of angry, chocolate-brown waters, submerged highways, and forced evacuations threatens the region with yet more flooding today and tomorrow.
The flooding, so far, has been stunningly widespread. Gov. Rendell declared a state of emergency for 46 counties, including Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia.
At least four deaths statewide were blamed on the storm, and residents were ordered or urged to leave their homes in at least 13 towns in Bucks, Chester and Montgomery Counties as rising waters posed life-threatening hazards.
“It is the worst water I’ve seen since I’ve been a cop,” said West Norriton Police Chief Robert Adams as he surveyed the flooded Riverview Landing Apartments on the banks of the Schuylkill. “That’s 33 years, all here.”
It could actually get worse as the Delaware River and Schuylkill continue to rise after six days of pounding rains work their way downstream.
It was impossible to put the flooding into any historical context, said Justin Fleming of the Pennsylvania Emergency Agency, for a simple reason: “It’s not over.”
I don’t know about historical contexts, but I do know that it’s tougher and tougher to keep track of the nuances of the ongoing Pennsylvania “drought” — which seems to still be on despite the wettest June I can remember.
It must be tough to be in the ranks of emergency officialdom.
As to context, far be it from me to advise those who know better about how to tell people in shelters that they’re in a drought — much less how to put the proper spin on this apparently divine aboutface.
Maybe they should declare it to be the wettest drought in Pennsylvania history.