Category Archives: Flood Risk

E Mt Pleasant Ave & Sprague St Flooding – July 24, 2020

For the 2nd Friday in July, there was flooding in the historic Wingohocking Creek Watershed, this time at E Mt Pleasant Ave and Sprague St. The previous July 2020 flood occured at Belfield and Church on July 10th (link).

Here is a short video that shows the flooding between the SEPTA bridge and Devon St.

This flooding was caused by the blocked stormwater inlet shown in this picture.

The July 11th Belfield and Church flooding (link), on the other hand, was caused by too much stormwater runoff overwhelming the sewers in that area.

The July 24 rainfall for Philadelphia is shown in this map which shows that our area got 1.5 – 2 inches and parts of Germantown got 2.5 – 3 inches.

As our global climate warms, we are seeing more intense rain storms. The July 10 and July 24 storms are an example of what we can expect. Please let me know if you see historic Wingohocking Watershed flooded intersections, railroad underpasses of other flooding so that we can log and document them to make sure that the City is aware and taking steps to both clear our inlets and increase our combined sewer capacity to reduce future flooding.

If you live near on of PWD’s 24 flood prone intersections (link) please be sure to get homeowners – renters insurance.

Philadelphia Rainfall From Tropical Storm Fay.

Tropical Storm Fay (link1, link2) passed through Philadelphia on July 10, 2020. This storm dumped 2 – 4 inches of rain on the Philadelphia area from about 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM on Friday, July 10th.

This plot shows NOAA’s Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Centers (AHPC) precipitation map for Philadelphia as of 8:AM on July 11, 2020.

The map shows the historic Wingohocking Creek Watershed which covers a major portion of NW Philadelphia. You can see that the Wingohocking Watershed received anywhere from 2.5 to 4 inches of rain over this storm.

This storm caused significant flooding at Belfield and Church. A local resident captured the video of the flooded intersection and posted it on Facebook at this link.

Climate Change, Flood Risk & Mortgages