Hurricane Ida damaged 11,000 Philly homes, with 500 suffering major damage, says new city report

Almost two years after the remnants of Hurricane Ida struck, drowning the Vine Street Expressway and flooding city neighborhoods, Philadelphia is getting $163 million for relief and future flood prevention.

Now, city officials have to decide how to spend it.

One thing is clear, though: Ida packed a wallop that’s still reverberating in neighborhoods filled with low to moderate income households unable to pay for upkeep on older homes even before the storm struck in early September 2021. The city’s 23% poverty rate is double that of the state. So repairs are that much more burdensome.

The city’s plan contains stark numbers laying out Ida’s havoc.

At least 11,000 residences had losses verified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Of those, 81 were destroyed and 500 suffered major damage. Strawberry Mansion, a neighborhood within North Philadelphia, had the highest concentration of repair and rental assistance awarded.

The Vine Street Expressway flooded and closed, and more than a fifth of commercial spaces in Manayunk suffered severe damage as Main Street was submerged in several feet of water.

The new Community Development Block Grant money is separate from direct aid that FEMA has awarded, or will award, to homeowners, businesses and the city.

Officials held a public meeting Tuesday night to outline the plan for allocating the grant money. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is overseeing the grant, which is designed to support not only recovery from Ida but ways to mitigate future floods.

The money can be spent on housing, economic revitalization, and infrastructure, said Pat Clark, the Community Development Block Grant director.

Overall, city officials say, Philadelphia has $1.2 billion in “unmet” costs related to Ida.

“There was historic flooding in Philadelphia,” Clark said. “There were impacts throughout the city. The impacts caused flooding, caused damage to houses, they disrupted businesses. They caused damage to some major infrastructure. And the initial response wasn’t enough to address the full needs of the community.”

The report states that Ida revealed a pressing need to improve the city’s aging water, sewer, and stormwater infrastructure. The vulnerabilities were exposed during the storm, as pump stations and other facilities failed.

For example, the Belmont Raw Water Pump Station, which serves a substantial portion of Philadelphia, lost power. The station draws water from the Schuylkill and pumps it to a filtration system.

Other Philadelphia Water Department facilities, such as the Queen Lane Water Treatment Plant, 42nd Street Pumping Station, and Lardner’s Point freshwater Pumping Station, were also affected.

“The system was pushed to its limits, and if additional infrastructure failed, the situation could have escalated into a crisis,” the report states. “Severe storms like Hurricane Ida will continue to have devastating effects on the water system, causing disruptions for residents ranging from a few hours to several weeks. It is evident that the existing infrastructure is ill-equipped to handle such events.”

Residential buildings were also significantly impacted, particularly rowhouses or attached one-unit buildings.

The report notes that an assessment in Strawberry Mansion shows that homes “continue to experience a combination of compromised exterior envelopes, including roofs, exterior walls (mostly masonry), windows, and doors, as well as various interior needs. It is important to note that many of these homes are aging and deteriorating buildings with deferred maintenance needs, which were further exacerbated by Hurricane Ida. This situation likely applies to other homes impacted by the storm across the city, especially in zip codes with higher rates of FEMA Individual Assistance.”

The draft plan calls for:

Overall, the money will go toward rehabilitating homes and rental properties, economic revitalization, infrastructure, housing counseling, workforce training, and mitigation and resiliency.

Officials expect to submit the plan to HUD for review in late August. If approved, programs to spent the money should begin operating in early 24. The city operates a web page devoted to the plan.