Main Street Girds Itself for (Another) Flood

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. When hurricanes are involved, they get going especially quickly.

With headed hard and fast up the East Coast, and set to touch down in the Philadelphia area late Saturday night, shop owners on Manayunk's Schuylkill-parallel Main Street are and are, consequently, in the early stages of a mini-exodus.

Smart move. According to the National Weather Service's Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service (AHPS), the Schuylkill River will cross the official flood threshold Sunday at 2 p.m. when it reaches 10 feet, then hit nearly 14 feet by 2 a.m. Monday morning.

"Our concern is the low lying areas, areas prone to flooding," said Philadelphia Fire Department battalion chief Richard Davison, who added that all fire personnel will be on hand throughout the storm and its aftermath.

Davison said that discretion on the part of residents and store owners is a key to safety.

"People know who they are, they know their area, they know if they live in a low-lying area they should evacuate beforehand."

executive director Jane Lipton is a veteran of several Main Street floods. She now, in her capacity with the MDC, tries to get the word out to shop owners. The word? Get out.

"Its the weather and its unpredictable and you should always prepare for the worst," said Lipton. "You have to keep yourself safe first, and then you worry about the stuff."

For businesses obviously, the stuff is still a major concern. Owing to the near certainty of an eventual flood, some shops in the more low-lying areas of the strip have a difficult time purchasing comprehensive flood insurance and so have to clear out goods as well as bodies.

Lumuria Gallery, a 4003 Main Street art shop a little up the road from the , is in a particularly problematic area. They've spent much of Friday morning ferrying paintings out of the store and to owner Pat Lock's home.

"At this point, we're just trying to get everything out of here," said Lock. "Everything is original, so if it gets lost, it's lost."

Lock, who has owned the store since 1999 and so seen her share of high waters, said she is unsure what sort of reimbursement her insurance will pay out for flood damage, so is not only removing all of the art from her gallery, but locking down the store and stuffing plastic bags along the front grate to get as close to a seal as possible to minimize damage to the building itself.

"The cleanup will still be a pain though," she added.

While Lock understands all-to-well the risk Irene poses, Lipton said complacency, or a feeling of invulnerability, can be a problem for some store owners who are out of the commonly understood trouble spots in the heart of Manayunk's retail district.

"We recommend that everyone move perishable stuff," added Lipton. "Move stuff that can be damaged by water to higher levels, or move it out of the store entirely. Some business know how to get ready, they sandbag, they move their things to a higher place--it's the places that only see problems at flood-type levels, that aren't used to this, that get in trouble when the water rises."

The is, owing to its location on the bank of the Schuylkill, especially vulnerable to flooding. They leave nothing to chance.

"We're preparing for the worst, but expecting the best," said manager Chad Ruvo. "We'll be moving all of our deck furniture upstairs tonight, we have a couple extra pumps for drains and we have a couple hundred sandbags to use as barriers along the back deck."

"You can't stop mother nature though," added Ruvo.

A greener, but no less vigilant, Main Street shop is . Owner Jesse Frank is fully insured and has a sump pump at the ready.

"I've heard horror stories," said Frank. "I've seen flood levels reach incredibly high in this area, but there is little that I can do. I'm going to close the store on Saturday night, and we won't open back up until we're ready."