Residents across Camden spent Tuesday cleaning up after flash flooding inundated neighborhoods, damaged homes and prompted dozens of water rescues.
Officials said Camden was among the hardest-hit communities after the storm. Streets, including Haddon Avenue and Park Boulevard, were flooded, and many homeowners spent the day pumping water from their basements and assessing extensive damage.
“The hot water heater and the furnace just went out and we’re both on fixed income so, you know, I don’t know how we’re gonna do this,” Daniel Cooper said.
Neighbors also shared cellphone video showing waist-deep water covering roads near Chesnut and Louis just a day earlier. Trash-covered storm drains contributed to flooding that eventually poured into nearby homes.
“When I looked, the basement was flooded. Everything in my basement got totaled. Things that I had down there for five years — it’s gone,” Willie Cooper said.
City officials said they received more than 1,000 911 calls in just two hours during the storm. Officials also said emergency crews performed 83 water rescues, with multiple vehicles becoming stranded on flooded roadways.
Fourteen of those rescues were carried out using a new high-water rescue truck that the Camden Fire Department received about a week before the storm.
Gov. Mikie Sherrill visited Camden to receive a briefing on the storm’s impact and view the rescue vehicle.
“The damages are really extensive around Camden. We saw historic levels of flooding and so what we’re doing now is calculating those, so we’re asking everyone to please report them to the Office of Emergency Services. That helps us with the calculations as we report and request help from FEMA and the federal government,” Sherrill said.
Many residents said they are also looking for reassurance that steps will be taken to reduce flooding during future storms.
Camden Mayor Victor Carstarphen said the city has already invested millions of dollars in its sewer system and will continue evaluating additional improvements.
“We’re gonna see what we can learn from this and as far as additional investments in areas, but we put millions of dollars and invested into our sewer systems. I’m proud of that investment because it allowed that water that floods to be drained out quickly,” Carstarphen said.
A Camden business continues to pump water out of its basement after Monday’s flood. NBC10’s Siobhan McGirl takes a look inside the business.
Sherrill said the state is also looking at additional resiliency measures and investments to better prepare for extreme weather, including both the recent heat and this week’s severe storms.
To report damage, please call Camden Emergency Management at 856-757-7132 or 856-757-7139.
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC Philadelphia. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC Philadelphia journalist edited the article for publication.