Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
Helplessly watching stormwater fill the basement is among the most frustrating experiences for Philadelphia homeowners. It is especially bad if you are waiting for the city\u2019s help to do something about it.<\/p>\n
In West Mount Airy<\/a>, Arielle Wolfson, 37, said roads by her home \u201cbecome a river\u201d when it storms. She and her wife live at the bottom of a hill near the intersection of Mount Pleasant Avenue and Cresheim Road, where five stormwater inlet drains are responsible for keeping rainfall from growing into rapids as it sloshes downward. But for years, only one of the drains has been fully functioning, Wolfson said. The others have been mostly sealed shut by city repaving projects that raised the level of the street, but not the inlets built into the curb.<\/p>\n When ankle-deep water slopes down into an alleyway that connects Wolfson\u2019s home and nearly 30 others, it often floods her basement. Every rainstorm is nerve-racking, she said, and her efforts to alert the city, the water department, and City Council members had not resulted in change beyond an occasional inlet cleaning.<\/p>\n Kelsey Hensley, Wolfson\u2019s wife, said their frequent flood calculus is: \u201cDo we go out with some friends, or do we stay home to monitor the basement?\u201d<\/p>\n Their anxiety is common in Philadelphia, where the city\u2019s century-old sewer and stormwater infrastructure<\/a> struggles to handle modern surfaces and roofs, increased rainfall, and a Delaware River<\/a> that has risen by roughly a foot since the sewer system was built. And after 16 consecutive months of lower-than-normal precipitation, regular rainfall returned to Philadelphia in July and August, and brought flooding<\/a> along with it.<\/p>\n Philly has about 72,000 stormwater inlets, and it does not take much to clog them up \u2014 ordinary objects like tree leaves, dirt, trash, and other street debris can all be culprits, according to the Philadelphia Water Department. Last year, residents submitted almost 3,000 requests to the city\u2019s 311 line for inlet cleanings, an Inquirer data review found, and the city is asking for help.<\/p>\n \u201cAcross the city, The Water Department regularly checks all sewer drains and clears those that are clogged. \u2026 If they are able, we encourage residents to take part in the cleanup process before a storm comes,\u201d city spokesperson Sharon Gallagher said in an email.<\/p>\n As the planet continues to warm, the stress on Philadelphia\u2019s flood-prone system only figures to increase<\/a>, leaving more residents like Wolfson with dread when clouds gather overhead. As she spoke to The Inquirer, an afternoon rainstorm had just passed through. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going down to the basement every hour just making sure it\u2019s OK. So just the anxiety that\u2019s pervasive among me, my wife, and other community members, it\u2019s pretty unbearable,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n A frustrating wait<\/p>\n Despite having roughly one stormwater inlet for every 20 Philadelphia residents, the city has generally responded to 311 requests for clogged stormwater inlets quickly. Since Mayor Cherelle L. Parker<\/a> came into office in 2024, the city has closed inlet cleaning requests in under four days on average. <\/p>\n But 311 data may not capture the complete scope of the issue. Some residents may report their issues directly to the water department.<\/p>\n And clogged inlets are just one part of the Philadelphia flooding experience. Mary Catherine Doyle, 56, has been in the middle of a Sisyphean ordeal at the hands of the water department\u2019s slow, antiquated system of hard-copy paperwork. <\/p>\n