“The Aftermath In Torresdale“

It's June 2024. The Philadelphia area is suffering from heatwave after heat wave. Back to back excessive heat warnings are issued alerting people that the air quality is poor and to take proper precautions to stay cool and stay safe. By the end of June, people are dodging from house to car to store to car to house, just to avoid being in the oppressive heat.

My wife and I are sitting in the living room watching TV when the rain begins. Around 6pm, we notice out of our large bay window that not only has the rain increased but now has been picked up and is blowing sideways up the street. I love storms. I love to watch them to see how everything is affected by the conditions. I think of it as Mother Nature putting on a show. And what a show this one is. Soon, the wind picks up to 50mph and is blowing the rain so hard, you can barely see the trees across the street through the screen of wild rain. The storm does not last more than an hour, if that. Then it's calm again.

The next morning, I head out to the store just before the sun comes up and see some of the destruction in my way. I race home to drop off what I had picked up, then I take my camera and faithful assistant daughter with me to head back out to capture the destruction.

While at All Saints Episcopal Church, a friend of mine comes out. Jay Walton is the Rector of the parish. He takes me around the back to show me what's left of their playground. It is covered in trees. As the tree service workers arrive, I fire off a few shots before they get to work.

Jay Walton has a great video that really shows how bad this storm is. Fifteen seconds into his doorbell camera footage, you see a tree blown as if some one is moving it. That tree winds up becoming a center divide on Frankford Avenue.

Check out Jay's video here:
https://www.facebook.com/AllSaintsTorresdale/videos/2613354515513434


Just as the workers are ready to clear the mess, Savanna and I head off in search of more wounds this neighborhood suffered during the storms.

The 8800 block of Torresdale Avenue has a tree snap. The tree falls onto power lines. Eventually, the weight of the tree is too much for one pole and it snaps. The tree pushes the wire down further so the top of that tree is right in the middle of the southbound lanes. Most cars going in both directions take turns in the northbound lanes to avoid the tree. While I'm standing near the tree checking my camera, one car drives through the tunnel that the fallen tree has made. Unfortunately, I forgot to calculate the stupidity of drivers and missed the opportunity to collect that moment.

The traffic light at the intersection of Grant & Frankford Avenues is out, causing it to become a blinking red light. This is is like kryptonite to the Philadelphia driver. All of a sudden they don't know what to do. I am sure they all answered the question correctly on the test to get their drivers license. They must have deleted that from their human databases shortly after passing. So here we are, at a busy 4-way intersection with a blinking red light and the chaos begins. I am approaching the intersection driving northbound on Frankford Avenue. The car on my left gets into the turning lane for Grant Avenue. Despite the road cones that indicate the road is closed, that car makes the left, while not one, but two southbound cars almost nail this car just before it stops dead in it's tracks. Road cones don't mean a thing to some drivers.

Knowing my way around, I travel the back way to a spot I knew is open and I can find out what the issue is. As I see the telephone pole snapped and the wires hanging just out of reach of the top of a car, there is still traffic going under the pole, under the wires that are probably live and I know I need to take safety precautions. I adjust my gear accordingly and I get to a spot that is out of reach of both the wire and the pole. By now, I know that if the wrong pickup truck comes by, the 9600 block of Leon Street is going to light up like fireworks on the 4th of July.

I am always amazed at what a storm decides to pickup and where branches decide to land. Still venturing around, I find a trampoline lined up with a basketball net. I have a feeling the owners did that to make the slam dunk. Neither one of them are disturbed. Not even by the huge chunk of tree that landed on it. I am not sure which company made that trampoline, but this would be a great ad campaign to show how durable and sturdy they are!

At last, in our travels, we find the champion of the storm. This beautiful giant tree that once adorned this quiet neighborhood came down in a grand way. When we find this, I am taken back at just how massive this tree is. When this tree fell, it took the sidewalk out with it. How this block looked before the storm is now just a memory. This will open a new chapter in the history of this street.

As I am documenting the damage to this house, a man walks over to me and asks me “who are you”? My default is to go into danger mode. I always feel like I am doing something wrong and am about to get reprimanded at any given moment while out documenting things. Before I have the chance to answer, he follows up with “are you with the news?”. I explain to him that I am simply a freelance photographer with an interest in documenting events and history. This is where a business card always comes in handy. As our conversation continues, my guard comes down and I realize that he was hoping the local news would pick up the story of how this tree destroyed his house.

He explains to me that he and his family were inside when it came down. It destroyed a bedroom, but thankfully no one was inside the room and no one was injured. They stayed in the house through the night. As I am packing my gear up into my car, Savanna and I are both hungry now. We've been out here a couple of hours and haven't eat yet this morning. Our next stop will be to Wawa. Before I shut my back door, the man who owns the house yells over to me. He asks if I would like to see the damage inside the house. I agree and he leads be through the kitchen, down the hall and opens the door to what used to be the back bedroom. Through the dark, I can make out the bed, a chair, a desk fan, even a bureau with a mirror. I'm amazed that the mirror doesn't even have the simplest scratch on it and remained in tact because suspended above all of this are splintered studs that used to be the ceiling. Weaved through the splintered studs is all the insulation that once kept this room warm. Now, its a chaotic mess, a memory of one night of heavy storms.

Just as we thought our morning venture was over, Savanna and I head to Wawa for some breakfast to take home to eat. As we park the car we find even more destruction. James D Morrissey Inc, which has built some of the most convenient on and off ramps to nearby highways, has their office right next to Wawa. Their property that holds all of their construction vehicles is protected by a white privacy fence. The storm flattened the fence there as well. Leaving their property exposed to the public.

The storm may have only lasted an hour, but Far Northeast Philadelphia will bear the scars for a long time to come. I could not believe The Aftermath in Torresdale.