Molly Clarke went to bed early Wednesday, unconcerned that the remnants of Hurricane Ida barreling through the Philadelphia region would deal more than a glancing blow to her row home.
"There was water up to my shoulders in the basement," said Clarke, 32, who lives in Conshohocken. "The river was in my backyard, and there were cops everywhere."
Four residents of Montgomery County, where Conshohocken is located, died as a result of the storm, said county spokesperson Kelly Cofrancisco. The toll was part of a bigger path of death and destruction that started in Louisiana and then roaredThe flooding river forced Conshohocken, a community of about 8,000 people, to shut the main highway that connects Philadelphia to its western suburbs. The region's main rail line was submerged under several feet of water.
Local emergency squads waited at the floodline in Conshohocken on Thursday for the waters to recede before starting evacuations of the people living in the apartments between the river and the rail line.