The Delaware Valley needs large-scale, regional planning to effectively address flooding. What’s in place is local and piecemeal

During his third year in office as a Pennsylvania State Representative, Joe Webster found a menace hiding within his bucolic Montgomery County district. Snaking its way through the landscape, lurking beneath bridges near the downtowns of Schwenksville, Graterford and Collegeville, the Perkiomen Creek was lying in wait.

When the remnants of Hurricane Ida arrived in September 2021, the typically peaceful creek erupted. At a U.S. Geological Survey water gauge at Graterford, flood stage officially begins at 11 feet, and the device can measure waters as high as 24 feet. But the creek rose off the charts, with eventual estimates topping out at a record 26.5 feet. Read more.

Photo by Michael Stokes via Flickr