At least five people were dead and two others remained missing on Sunday after severe floods swept through areas of Pennsylvania and storms continued to threaten much of the Northeast.
In a news conference, Tim Brewer, the fire chief of Upper Makefield in the suburbs north of Philadelphia, said that 11 vehicles were trapped late Saturday afternoon by rising waters on the flooded Washington Crossing Road.
“The flash flood occurred some time after that,” Mr. Brewer said. “We believe approximately 11 cars were on the road. Three were confirmed swept away.” A baby and a toddler were unaccounted for in the aftermath of the storm that hit Bucks County, officials said during a Sunday news conference. They described water rising swiftly and violently in a scene that stunned veteran rescue workers.
“We are treating this as a rescue,” said Tim Brewer, fire chief of Upper Makefield Township, “but we are fairly certain we are in a recovery mode.”
During a brief update Sunday, Brewer said the two missing were a 9-month-old boy and a 2-year-old girl from the same family; they were visiting Bucks County from Charleston, S.C. He declined to release their names, though he said the family permitted him to share their story.
Story continues below advertisement The family of two parents, a grandmother and three children was driving to a barbecue when they were caught in the flash flood while on the highway.
“As they tried to escape the floodwaters, dad took his 4-year-old son while the mother and the grandmother grabbed the younger children,” Brewer said. “Miraculously, dad and son were able to get to safety. However, the grandmother, the mother and the two children were swept away by the floodwaters.”
The mother’s body was recovered Sunday afternoon, Brewer said, while authorities continued to search for the missing children. It was not clear whether the grandmother was among the dead.
The deadly flash flooding in Washington Crossing, a township north of Philadelphia and near the border with New Jersey, followed more than a week of flooding and thunderstorms in the state and the wider Northeast, with Vermont and New York’s Hudson Valley hit particularly hard.
Story continues below advertisement Another Pennsylvania county, Berks, was deluged by flooding last weekend, displacing dozens of residents, according to CBS News Philadelphia.
Saturday’s storm in Bucks County dumped about 7 inches of rain within 45 minutes, Brewer said, taking drivers by surprise.
Wild flash flooding cascading off farmlands on Almshouse Road in Warminster near Solly’s Farm #buckscounty pic.twitter.com/AjbRgN5XXq
— Michael Adler (@madler9000) July 15, 2023
“When the water came up, it came up very quickly,” he said. “We do not think that anybody drove into it — that they were actively on that road when it happened.”
Firefighters who were on another call witnessed three cars being carried away by the onslaught. Brewer said there was “approximately four to five feet of water over the road,” adding that he had “never seen anything like it.”
Footage shared by CBS Philadelphia showed cars flipped over and swept off the road in the flood’s aftermath. One car was found about a mile and a half from where it was swept away, Brewer said. Authorities from Bucks County and beyond mounted a search-and-rescue effort, using ropes to reach stranded people in what the fire chief called an “exhausting night.”
Story continues below advertisement Shari Bonet, a pastor at Washington Crossing United Methodist Church, said she pulled up at the church about 6:30 p.m. Saturday to find the parking lot swarming with rescue vehicles. The building sits near the roadway where the vehicles were swept away, and it became a gathering place for first responders, flood survivors and loved ones of those who were missing.
People were shocked and soaked, Bonet said, and church volunteers brought them blankets and coffee. Others, including a man who hadn’t heard from his wife, sat staring out the church windows, waiting for news.
“I could see the fear on peoples’ faces,” the pastor said. “And there were a couple people I just went and hugged. I knew they were just — they wanted to know, you know, and there were no answers at that moment.”
Story continues below advertisement First responders rescued a woman who was trapped in her vehicle, officials said. Crews also found three people who had died in the flooding: two women and a man, between about 40 and 70 years old.
Brewer later said a fourth body was found. Authorities were working Sunday afternoon to identify the victim and notify family, the Upper Makefield Township Police Department said on its Facebook page.
None of the victims have been publicly named.
As rescuers continued their search Sunday, the Northeast faced a slew of other weather threats. A tornado watch covered parts of southern Maine, southern New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, northern Rhode Island and New York, primarily around Long Island, until 3 p.m. That same broad region was under a flood watch through the evening and at high risk of excessive rainfall.
Story continues below advertisement The National Weather Service warned that areas of “significant and locally life-threatening flash flooding” were expected in New England through midafternoon. Late Sunday morning, extremely heavy rain had prompted flash-flood warnings from western Connecticut through much of New Hampshire, where up to 3 inches of rain had fallen and another 1 to 2 inches was possible.
Worry about heavy rain was particularly high in Vermont and the Hudson Valley of New York, which saw severe flooding a week ago. The ground was left sodden, like a waterlogged sponge, and unable to handle much additional moisture, bolstering the odds of flash flooding.
Scientists have said that although no weather event is solely caused by mankind’s influence, the frequency of extreme weather is increasing because of human-influenced climate change.
Roads in Bangor, Pa., were covered in floodwater on July 16 as several inches of rain hit the area. (Video: Paul K via Storyful) Some airports on the East Coast, including in Orlando, the New York area and Boston, issued ground stops because of severe weather midday.
Story continues below advertisement The rainfall in the Northeast has been in stark contrast to the Southwest, which is struggling through extreme heat and watching as temperatures threaten to set records.
In Bucks County, officials declared a disaster after the deluge. As the Red Cross works to help those affected, local leaders are watching for additional threats of flash flooding, Brewer said.
“I thought Hurricane Ida was the benchmark [in 2021],” he said. “This is a new benchmark.”
This is a developing story that will be updated.
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