RECAPPING YESTERDAY'S MESS

Mother nature wreaked a lot of havoc on the SEPTA system last night. To recap some of the highlights (or lowlights):

• Nearly 400 passengers were stranded on the R5 after the #575 (6:45pm Paoli Local) was forced to hold after flooding near Overbrook station. According to Fox 29, the train was held just east of Overbrook on #4 track before backing up and safely unloading passengers on the inbound platform. Several passengers were rescued by Philadelphia Fire Department, who had their hands full last night, as did other fire companies across the area. Service had been suspended the remainder of last night. Complicating matters for Paoli/Thorndale riders was a downed tree reported this morning west of St Davids station. R5 service is reportedly operating again, but with delays.
• R6 Norristown service was also suspended due to flooding conditions along the Schuylkill; the Norristown Times Herald reported that nearly 20 passengers were stranded at Miquon station.
• R8 Chestnut Hill West service was suspended due to reports of downed trees and other weather related problems.
• The R2 Warminster and R3 West Trenton ran with significant delays into the morning peak.
• R6 Cynwyd service remains suspended due to the storm.
• Market-Frankford and Broad-Ridge Spur service was suspended during the height of the storm.
• A Red Arrow NABI was among nearly 60 vehicles stuck in a major flood/mud slide on 76 Eastbound; 5319 was working a 124/125 into Center City at the time the flood struck the road.
• The 104 was severely impacted as West Chester Borough was, effectively, cut off due to flooding of Chester Creek; all traffic was forced to divert via the Super Wawa parking lot between Westtown Rd and Bolmar St. Passengers trying to get into West Chester along Gay St were dropped off at the Wawa and forced to walk into town.
• There have been some conflicting reports over the drowning incident on Midvale Av in the East Falls district of Philadelphia. Several outlets reported that the victim was swept underneath a SEPTA bus; the victim was in fact swept underneath a passenger vehicle after a SEPTA operator working the K, according to the Inquirer:
  
  

  "The water was coming down like a roaring river," said Dave Adams, an East Falls resident who tried to save the woman.
  
  Adams said that a SEPTA bus driver stopped his bus, got out and told Adams that he thought he had seen a woman washed down the street in the 3600 block of Midvale.
  
  The water was more than two-feet deep, and Adams, the driver and six others began walking almost blindly in the rain and wind feeling in the rushing water for woman's body.
  
  Adams said he found her trapped under a pick-up, and "grabbed her." Everyone picked up the truck, Adams said, and pulled her out. Inquirer

There were also reports of localized flooding causing detours of numerous bus routes, including in Upper Darby, where Marshall Rd - still recovering from a major rainstorm in August - once again flooded, causing problems on the 42, 107, 108, 109, and 113. Elsewhere in the township, the area around Lynn Blvd was flooded, impacting the 103.