NEWS INFORMATION FROM

THE OFFICE OF MAYOR STEPHEN R. REED
City of Harrisburg
King City Government Center
Harrisburg, PA 17101-1678
Telephone: 717.255.3040

FOR IMMEDIATE USE
19 September 2003

ISABEL’S EFFECTS ON CITY WIDESPREAD; TRAFFIC SIGNALS, POWER OUT, STREETS BLOCKED, TREES DOWNED, AND MORE

Harrisburg, PA—Mayor Stephen R. Reed this morning reported on some of Tropical Storm Isabel’s effects in the city.

• Eleven intersections are without functioning traffic signals, including various major sites---such as Cameron and Elmerton, Cameron and Paxtang, 13th and Sycamore, Cameron and Sycamore, Front and Maclay, Second and Maclay, and others; additional police officers have been kept on-duty on overtime to direct traffic and portable stop signs are being put into place until power is restored;
• Numerous streets have been blocked by fallen trees and limbs; trees have also struck homes and businesses, as well as parked vehicles, doing damage and, in some instances, crushing cars;
• Many electrical power lines have been knocked down, causing many transformers to blow, sending light flashes into the stormy night sky; extensive areas of the city are without power; the city’s water treatment plant is without electrical power but no interruption in the city’s water supply will occur, as the holding reservoirs in Reservoir Park have a four-day water supply in place; the headquarters of Community Life Team (emergency medical services) and their River Rescue Division is also without power but they continued normal operations throughout the night;
• High winds caused windows to break and roofs to be damaged; a wind gust this morning was measured at 65 mph;
• High winds also brought down streetlights and numerous signs;
• Downed trees broke off a pressure reducing valve in the UGI natural gas distribution system at North Front and Division Streets, causing the loud and continuous flow of gas into the atmosphere; because the gas was at high pressure and blowing winds quickly dissipated it, no risk was posed to nearby homes and businesses and therefore no evacuation was necessary; UGI and city fire crews halted the leak;
• Some minor street flooding occurred but receded in quick order; Spring Creek is near flood stage; Paxton Creek has not posed a flooding threat and Susquehanna River flooding is not expected, based on information known at this hour;
• The city suspended trash collection for today (Friday) and announced it earlier this week, so that thousands of trash cans would not be out in the open during the high winds, which would have strewn them everywhere and made them projectiles in the air, dangerous to persons and property;
• Due to the storm’s effects, classes in the Harrisburg School System are cancelled for today (Friday)
• Minor injuries have occurred, but none are life-threatening;
• Some disruption of telephone and cable television services has occurred, with service lines being knocked down;
• A Declaration of Disaster Emergency was issued by the Mayor on Friday morning, after winds increased and more extensive damage began to occur;
• City crews and many businesses removed outdoor trash cans, chairs, tables and other portable items, to prevent them from being carried away by high winds or, worse, becoming projectiles in the air that could hurt people or property;
• City police, fire, parks maintenance and public works crews have been working around-the-clock and will continue their work; as trees and other debris is removed from the streets, it is placed at curbside for later pick-up as crews catch-up with damage and clean-up; clean-up efforts will take more than a week;
• No comprehensive damage assessment has yet been completed, as it is not yet known what losses and costs have resulted from power outages, and property owners and insurance adjusters have not had a chance to fully assess damage, most of which occurred during Thursday and early Friday morning; costs to the city government itself will be in the tens of thousands of dollars;

Reed said: “The storm could have been worse, but we will long remember Isabel.”

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