Saturday, May 3, 2014

The aftermath

I heard miserable stories of protracted, frustrating commutes the morning after the rain storm, when the Brandywine Creek had flooded major roads. One family member who never, ever misses a day of work (it's genetic) detoured south into Delaware and then northeast to his job in Delco. Another friend, headed from West Grove to Berwyn, found either flooding or impossibly snarled traffic at Routes 1, 926, 52, 162, and 842. He finally ended up going all the way up to Coatesville and taking the Route 30 bypass  -- which, as luck would have it, was at a crawl due to a crash.
The Unionville-Chadds Ford School District, being divided by the Brandywine, was forced to close for the day, pushing the last day of school even farther back -- to Monday, June 16.
Some horse owners whose pastures abut the normally bucolic Brandywine faced difficulties as well. Some fences were swept away by the water, or if they were still there they were festooned with mounds of debris. You could tell how high the water had risen by observing the collection of branches and junk that was left behind.
At least it was warm and sunny most of the day after the storm: at one farm I saw perhaps a dozen sodden horse blankets draped over fences, drying in the sun.

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