Pennsylvania
Harrisburg cleanup from Debby could take weeks | StateImpact Pennsylvania
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Rachel McDevitt
I report on energy and the environment for StateImpact Pennsylvania at WITF.My work focuses on responses and solutions to climate change in the state legislature and communities around the state. I trace my interest in these issues back to my time as a Girl Scout and this episode of Rocko’s Modern Life.
I look forward to winter just for the chance to ski a few times each season. I try to keep myself from doom-scrolling on my phone by keeping my hands busy knitting and learning to play the piano.
I grew up in Cambria County, Pa. and graduated from Temple University. I started at WITF just after Christmas in 2014.
Rachel McDevitt / StateImpact Pennsylvania
Fallen trees damaged homes as the remnants of Hurricane Debby passed through Harrisburg on Aug. 9, 2024.
The remnants of Hurricane Debby brought strong winds and dropped up to 7 inches of rain in some parts of Pennsylvania Friday, according to the National Weather Service.
Cleanup efforts could continue for weeks as homeowners and businesses take stock of the damage.
Weather service forecasters say the worst of the rain has passed for the Harrisburg area, but there is still a threat of flooding into the weekend as rainwater drains into watersheds.
Rachel McDevitt / StateImpact Pennsylvania
An uprooted tree blocks the sidewalk on Market St. in Harrisburg on Aug. 9, 2024. The remnants of Hurricane Debby caused flooding and felled trees throughout Pennsylvania.
Climate change makes hurricanes more intense, meaning people are experiencing more severe storm surge, rain and wind. Debby made landfall in Florida as a category 1 hurricane. It weakened to a tropical storm before remnants reached Pennsylvania, but was still considered dangerous.
Harrisburg Public Works Director Dave West said the city started getting calls about downed trees at 4:30 Friday morning. Crews cleared 155 trees to make roads passable and planned to continue clean up Saturday.
Yuderka Cabrera lives on Swatara Street and works making deliveries for companies such as Instacart. But she couldn’t get out of her neighborhood on Friday because of the downed trees.
“The streets are crazy. A lot of the streets are closed,” she said. “So, it’s difficult, but we try.”
Cabrera’s husband, Jirmi, also makes deliveries, for Staples. He lost a day of work and pay by not being able to move his box truck.
Rachel McDevitt / StateImpact Pennsylvania
The remnants of Hurricane Debby passed through Harrisburg on Aug. 9, 2024.
Joey Keating said he heard his home’s windows rattling, trees crashing, and the wind howling as the storm moved through his neighborhood early in the morning.
“It was by far the strongest wind I’ve ever heard and definitely the scariest,” he said.
Keating said he’s lucky his home wasn’t damaged. Many of his neighbors had trees fall on their houses.
Midtown Cinema, an independent movie theater in Harrisburg, flooded with several inches of water after a drain pipe burst Friday morning.
Stuart Landon, the cinema’s director of community engagement, said water got into the building’s hallway, two of the three theaters, and the lobby.
Rachel McDevitt / StateImpact Pennsylvania
The Midtown Cinema flooded when a drain pipe burst during heavy rainfall on Aug. 9, 2024. Water reached the second row of seats in this theater.
He said they’ll likely be closed for weeks, which is sad for the people who count on the theater as a social space.
“We show the films, oftentimes, that people don’t show anywhere else and this is the place people get to see them, so we want to get back up and running as quickly as possible,” he said.
Gov. Josh Shapiro issued a disaster emergency proclamation for 21 counties, including Adams, Berks, Cumberland, Dauphin, and Fulton. The order makes $2 million of state funds immediately available to help respond. It also waives bidding and contracting procedures to speed the response. The order will be in place for 21 days, unless extended by the General Assembly.
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