Two weeks ago, Hurricane Ida hit the Louisiana coast and New Orleans exactly 15 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina and the flooding it caused nearly destroyed the city. It survived the winds...but when the levee broke, the city flooded catastrophically. This storm was about wind...down there. It hit the Louisiana coast, Grand Isle (which i visited and photographed, where houses are on 16 foot stilt platforms) with Category 4, 150 mph winds. Grand Isle pretty devastated, towns in the bayous, at sea level, like Lafitte pretty much destroyed.
When the storm made it up here...wind was not the issue...it was Tropical Storm Ida, three days later. It spawned tornados and massive flooding. Here in Philadelphia, the Schuylkill River had record flooding, the most in over 100 years. There were at least 7 tornados, with many houses and a school destroyed. The death toll in New Jersey was higher than in Louisiana. The New York City subways flooded. The rains were torrential here...
The next morning....on any other day, I would have been out with my Olympus photographing the floodwaters...but I needed to drive to Lancaster to set up my furniture booth at the Longs Park Art Show. We were lucky that the storm came on Wednesday...with a Thursday set-up day. It was sunny, cool and low humidity. A gorgeous day. The trip should have been, for me, 1 1/2 hours...trying to get to the other side of the river....it took three.
After getting back from my show.....i rode my usual "short" bike route, 17 miles down hill from Germantown and along the river and back. So, no flood images...but I did get on my iPhone images of the damage and remnants, a sort of collection of "forensic" images of the damage. I will show this over a few days.
The lead here....is showing what the flood did...and Saturday shadows, Saturday night here. This pathway, the Schuylkill Banks is about 10-12 feet over the normal level or the river. That log would have floated on t it over the railing...
Peter
Tags: Photo journalism
Flooding
Tropical Storm
Hurricane Ida
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