Philadelphia is planning to use new flood monitoring technology in Eastwick and other neighborhoods
Philadelphia is planning to use new flood monitoring technology in Eastwick and other neighborhoods
Publish Date: 2026-05-09 16:10:00
Source Domain: www.inquirer.com
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Block captain Brenda Whitfield, 78, barely contained her emotion as new flood monitoring technology was unveiled Saturday morning in the Eastwick section of Southwest Philadelphia.
The longtime resident still remembers having to check the nearby Cobbs Creek, holding hands with her two young grandchildren. It wasn’t quality time; it was a survival mechanism developed by years of learning to distrust the rain.
“With other people, rain puts you to sleep,” Whitfield said. “It gives us anxiety, because that means that when it rains we are going to get flooded.”
So, when the water looked high and turbulent — or worse, made its way to a light pole halfway to the rowhouses on their block — the kids knew what to do: Run up and down the nearby streets, knocking on neighbors doors, screaming: “It’s time to move your cars and bring your stuff out of the basement!”
Inadvertently, they had become a flood alarm for the people of Eastwick. But, nothing prepared them for the devastation that Tropical Storm Isaias brought in 2020.
Clothing, piles of damp carpet, furniture, and other household items appeared on the block in the aftermath of the storm.
“We were unprepared,” Whitfield said. “The flood came without a warning and I realized we have to help ourselves because nobody else was coming to help us.”
Following the devastation, the local community organized marches and pushed constantly for a government response, she said. They were heard by the city and state representatives.
After six years, and a couple of prevention projects were delayed by a Trump administration cut to flooding protection grants, the people of Eastwick are finally getting the first of multiple flood gauges and cameras to be installed citywide for flood monitoring.
How the flood monitoring works
This notification pilot project uses a small number of flood sensors and cameras to get real-time information about how likely floods are to happen, said Dominick…
