Late Sunday morning, here in the NW Philadelphia 'burbs, I typed a post in this thread saying things were much less bad than expected and the power had stayed up the whole time. As I typed in a line about seven of those obnoxious horn-like alerts on the radio calling out tornado warnings, the lights flickered up and down a couple of times and the power dropped altogether - spoke too soon. So I sort of let the whole notion slide.

In my youth (a long time ago!) I understood that tornado watches meant one could happen and a warning meant one was spotted dangling in the air or on the ground. It seems now, it's a bit more cover-your-butt in nature; a warning is "Dopple radar shows spots of possible rotation" or some such thing. I accept that it's probably better to be told than not, but it can really raise anxiety levels. (Note to self: pick up a "real" battery operated radio with weather band ....)

But today, I drove through Spring Mount on my way back from somewhere and discovered an unexpected bit of damage. The bridge across the Perkiomen there just opened last October after a total replacement costing $4.6 million. It has a divided section to carry the Perkiomen Trail, a pretty decent Montgomery County MUP across the creek. By the debris line, it appears the water was up to mid-span at some point, about 15 feet above the normal level. So I drove back this evening and snapped a few shots of the damage. I haven't walked or ridden any of the trail yet, so I don't know what else may have happened.

A round trip from Pottstown to Birdsboro on the Schuylkill River Trail yesterday found the Riverfront Park end of the trail still flooded at a couple of low spots, and three trees down up toward Douglassville, though one of them was being sawed up as I returned.

Compared with north and east of here we were pretty much spared. Can't imagine what it must be like in Vermont.

DaveT