Manayunk residents upset, hurt by flood

Overlooking the small public park which he and his wife Jody help run, Jon Haubrich is unfazed by the fact that it's under several feet of water, courtesy of yesterday's flooding of the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers.

Manayunk residents all their lives, they also don't seem too upset by the fact that parts of their Main Street have been evacuated and are now submerged.

They say they're used to bearing the brunt of Philadelphia's storms and, compared with one 5 years ago, they find it somewhat less than impressive.

Then what brought them to the banks of the Schuylkill yesterday afternoon?

They wanted to show their 3 and a half year old granddaughter her first flood.

She's a "Manayunker" now, they explain, and it's important that she take it all in -- and she wasn't the only one.

Main Street Manayunk was crowded with passersby going about their business.

Most people seemed unconcerned by the fact that they were standing less than 100 feet away from submerged businesses and apartment buildings, and were calmly ordering water ices from a local mom-and-pop store, walking dogs and going for their daily runs.

Stephanie Kurtz of Levering Avenue summed it up: "It's a little crazy to have such a nice day out and have a state of emergency" imposed on the city.

And the day was nice -- sunny and hot -- contrasting starkly with the nearby river fighting to get out of its banks.

In fact, to cool off, two children decided to play in a partially submerged jungle gym, doing cannon balls off the slide while a woman warned them of the dangers of waterbourne bacteria, but they just laughed and ignored her.

Other residents ventured onto an old railroad bridge, where, peeking through the rails and a metal walkway, they got a look at the raging Schuylkill below.

Looking out at the mass of brown water, resident Joanne Woodburn said that the Schuylkill "puts us in our place."

Yet there were those who tempered their awe of nature's fury with anger.

Terri Bateman said that this flood "was inevitable" as she cradled a small black dog in one arm and pointed to a new housing development with the other.

She charged that Manayunk has become overdeveloped in recent years and believes that problems like this will keep cropping up if local officials don't pay more attention to the environment.

And one man, when asked what he felt about the flood, pointed at the Grape Street pub where he works -- now with only a roof peaking above the water -- and said, "How do you think I feel? This sucks." He expects to be out of a job for the next several years.

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