Storms woes include rescues, flooded roads, tornado

Dramatic rescues, a possible tornado, and all sorts of flood-related traffic problems were created by a system of inundating morning storms on Tuesday.

Just before noon, in Holmesburg, a man was pulled out of the rushing waters of Pennypack Creek to the safety of a railroad bridge. Tuesday night, police were searching for a 20-year-old man who tried to test the rapids in still-swollen creek with two other friends. The friends emerged, but the other man did not.

Earlier, a raft was used to rescue a man trapped on the roof of his car in a parking lot at Tookany Creek Parkway and Central Avenue in Cheltenham.

For drivers, the biggest headache was the two-hour traffic snarl caused by flooding on the eastbound Schuylkill Expressway (I-76) near Belmont Avenue, a situation cleared shortly after 11:30 a.m.

Other flooded roadways included Lincoln Drive between Rittenhouse Street and Gypsy Lane; Route 42 in both directions near the Walt Whitman Bridge; Route 130 and Admiral Wilson Boulevard in Camden; and a ramp from City Avenue to the Schuylkill, as well as part of the expressway near South Street.

Accidents, downed trees, and disabled vehicles contributed to roadway woes.

SEPTA had delays on the rails all morning - tracks for the Market-Frankford El were underwater at 69th Street as of 9 a.m. - but by 2 p.m. the lines were back on schedule.

The threat of flooding didn't so much end Tuesday morning as it shifted northward, with Montgomery, Bucks, and Burlington Counties under a flash-flood warning for early afternoon, followed by a midafternoon flood advisory for parts of New Jersey. Torrential rain caused traffic to slow on I-295 in Cherry Hill about 2 p.m.

Between 6 and 7 a.m., Wilmington Airport reported 1.5 inches of rain, and the soaking moved from Delaware County into parts of Philadelphia, Montgomery, and Bucks Counties. Camden reported 2.4 inches in 80 minutes Tuesday morning.

The Somerton section of Northeast Philadelphia had 1.58 inches between 9:30 and 10:30, according to a National Weather Service spotter.

Chester, Lancaster, and York Counties were also part of an early flash-flood advisory, because of rains that might quickly fill small streams and low-lying roads.

Damaging winds were not a big worry for the Philadelphia area - despite the early tornado warning.

About 5,000 Peco Energy Co. customers were without power Tuesday morning, down from a peak of about 10,000 Monday night, said spokesman Ben Armstrong. The biggest outage, affecting about 2,600 homes and businesses in Upper Darby, was mostly restored just before 9 a.m.

A tight atmospheric rotation - technically a tornado - was detected at 6:44 a.m. about nine miles west of Dover, Del. The system was moving northeast at 20 m.p.h., so warnings were issued through 7:15 a.m. for Kenton, Cheswold, Clayton, Leipsic, and Smyrna.

But no major damage was reported by authorities in Kent County, or in nearby Maryland, so the funnel cloud probably never touched down.

"We're assuming it remained aloft," said meteorologist Dean Iovino of the National Weather Service in Mount Holly.

Wednesday could see more showers and thunderstorms before the system leaves.

Excessive heat and humidity will then become the worries as highs hover in the mid-90s Thursday and Friday. Heat indexes could reach 100.

The weekend, with highs in the low 90s, could also bring showers and thunderstorms on Saturday, and another high in the low 90s on Sunday.