Violent Storms Create Hail, Flash Flooding In Philadelphia Area

The first hint of the trouble to come popped up on radar at noon Monday — an unexceptional patch of light rain over an area from Clifton Heights to Glenolden, Delaware County.

By the end of the night, the Montgomery County Emergency Center was flooded with more than 1,600 calls and had commissioned 25 water rescues as cosmic downpours inundated the region within just a few hours.

The National Weather Service posted scores of reports of hailstones with the diameter of half-dollars, submerged vehicles, and closed roads from Berks County and Philadelphia’s western suburbs to Ocean City and Ventnor.

“The ferocity of that storm definitely caught us all by surprise,” said George Locke, the borough manager of Jenkintown, which received close to 6 inches of rain, more than the 60-day total for any county in the region through Sunday, according to National Weather Service data.