Ida 1 Year Later: What PennDOT's doing to prevent future flooding on Vine Street Expressway
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- One year ago, devastating flooding swept through communities along the Schuylkill River, including Manayunk. The river merged with the canal and water surged into Main Street buildings and homes.
Just a few miles away, those same floodwaters knocked out a critical pump station that normally keeps water out of the Vine Street Expressway. Without the pumps, the expressway filled with water like a bowl.
"One year since Ida, I can't believe it happened," Rasham Shah said. "I can't believe that -- we never would've thought that this much water would've come up from the Schuylkill."
Logan Square residents are still in disbelief of the damage left behind by Hurricane Ida.
Shah lost a car and the ground floor of her townhouse, but the real shock in the neighborhood came from seeing the Vine Street Expressway underwater.
"All of the scenes from that day were just things that you would never think in a million years would happen," Shah said.
"It was a crazy sight to see. I actually was not expecting it," Matt Bik said. "We were not expecting that at all. I don't think anybody was really expecting for that to happen."
"We hadn't designed the pump station to encounter water coming in from the Schuylkill," said Tim Stevenson, with PennDOT.
While water receded from the Vine Street Expressway in a matter of days, a year later engineers are still trying to figure out how to make sure it doesn't happen again.
When the Schuylkill overflowed its banks, the river water damaged the electrical systems in the pumping stations along the highway.
A study will now be conducted to see if portable dams, a levee, or flood walls could prevent future flooding from the river. The study is still about a year away.
The simple question is, what's taking so long?
"It's just a timing thing," Stevenson said. "Our initial response was related to trying to reopen roads and we are still doing that, while also then starting to plan for the future."
Philadelphia officials say the storm caused $19 million in damage to the city's infrastructure.
FEMA says 33,000 people applied for assistance to recover.
