Schuylkill River Flooding Damages Boathouse Row And Local Businesses
By Syma Chowdhry
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Cars under water, traffic signals giving direction to no one but fish, but after Wednesday's storm, the Schuylkill River rages on.
East Falls looks more like the bottom of a water fall.
With the Schuylkill swollen, water had nowhere to go but up and out.
The area around Kelly Drive was off limits of most the day.
The Eyewitness News team had to leave the news truck behind and walk empty streets to get near he flooding.
"Oh it came up very, very fast," Frank Hill said.
He works for a nearby daycare and was spared from flooding, but a restaurant nearby wasn't so lucky.
In Riva was in the river, with four feet of water.
Businesses spent the day pumping water out.
Hill explained, "One minute it was on the other side of the wall, and the next minute it was all the way up to the street."
The Schuylkill unleashed its rage on Boathouse Row, causing thousands of dollars of damage.
Gerry Quinlan is the coach for St. Joseph's women's row team. "We kind of got it from both ends," he explained. "The river rose this way and the water comes off the hill as well. We got here this morning and river was going around the boathouse."
The team usually loves being in the water, but not when it is indoors in their boathouse.
Gerry says this is the highest the water has ever come, worse than Hurricane Irene.
He estimates at least $30,000 worth of damage and believes that number will go up once the water recedes.
The team tied the boats and prepared for the storm as best they could.
Now, they are just trying to stay positive.
"Guess that's the hazards of being on the river."
