Flood victim found in car after it's towed

A 27-YEAR-OLD woman driving home late Wednesday got caught in floodwaters in East Germantown and drowned inside her car, but her body wasn't discovered until after the car was towed, authorities said yesterday.

The woman - whose name had not been released as of this morning - called her father, a city police officer, to tell him she was on her way home, said Officer Tanya Little, a police spokeswoman. When she hadn't arrived by Thursday morning, the officer went to Northwest Detectives to file a missing-person report.

Officers on patrol spotted her Chrysler Pacifica SUV abandoned at Musgrave and Haines streets about 11:45 a.m. and had it towed, Little said. Authorities found the dead woman in a rear seat inside the car after it arrived at the tow lot, Little added.

"She got caught in her car" in floodwaters, police Lt. Raymond Evers said. "A tragic, tragic case."

Autopsy results are pending.

The woman became the city's first flood-related fatality from the recent storms. More than 3.65 inches of rain fell Thursday in Philadelphia, a record for Sept. 8.

The car was found in a flat, low-lying area with churches on two corners and train tracks running nearby. Awbury Arboretum is about four blocks north.

A wall of water about 5 feet high cascaded through low-lying parts of East Germantown early Wednesday morning.

Neighbors said the area is prone to flooding, and has flooded three times in the past month.

"This neighborhood is built on top of a creek," said Lisa Stratton, an East Germantown resident. "If the creek rises and the [sewers] can't support it, it'll flood."

A video clip on Stratton's cellphone showed that only the roofs of her neighbors' cars were visible above water quickly moving down Beechwood Street during this week's flood.

Stratton added that the woman's death is not the first from floodwater in East Germantown. About 30 years ago, neighbors said, a man trying to walk through floodwater on Beechwood Street near Wister died after being sucked into an open manhole.