UPDATE: In Irene's Wake, 3,000+ Still Without Power in Lower Merion

(Updated 5 p.m. Monday, Aug. 29) Though Hurricane Irene left the greater Philadelphia area on Sunday at midday, her presence is still being felt in the Ardmore-Merion-Wynnewood Patch and in several towns nearby.

Lower Merion Police Superintendent Mike McGrath issued a statement late Monday saying 3,095 PECO customers are still without without power in the township. The total number of customers off line for PECO is 150,112, he said.

Road Closures, Impacted Areas

In Wynnewood, Remington Road at Tomkenn Road continues to have live wires with trees down, Lower Merion Township said. PECO anticipates four to six hours for a full crew to complete the job. 

“Travelers are ignoring the ‘Road Closed’ barricades.” —Lower Merion Police Supt. Mike McGrath

Below is a list of additional “significant road closures” in Lower Merion Township, caused by fallen trees and exposed power lines.

“Although Township crews will be working through the night, these roadways are expected to be closed through tomorrow morning’s rush hour traffic,” said McGrath.

The following closures was updated late Monday afternoon:

• Conshohocken State Road in Gladwyne is closed between Mill Creek and Scott roads.  Use Montgomery Avenue for east-west travel through the Township.
• Youngs Ford Road at Monticello Road in Gladwyne
• Pennswood Road between New Gulph Road and Montgomery Aveue in Haverford
• Morris Road at Harriton and Caversham (two locations), in Bryn Mawr
• Lafayette Road (several locations in Gladwyne)
• Youngsford and Briar Hill roads in Gladwyne
• Centennial Road in Penn Valley
• River Road in Gladwyne is now open for traffic.

Other roads impacted:

—On Waldron Park Drive, a crew from Illinois is working into the night trying to re-string the electricity, McGrath reported. Several utility poles there were broken.

—The Old Gulph Road ford will remain closed as there is no safe passage from the ford because Mulberry Lane is closed—a tree limb is leaning on wires and is ready to fall on Old Gulph.

“Travelers are ignoring the ‘Road closed’ barricades, only having to turn around at the ford gate or on Mulberry where the wires are down,” McGrath said.

—Conshohocken State Road remains closed at Barr Lane and at Norsam Road, though McGrath said Barr would open “shortly.” Norsam may take until Tuesday due to electric and gas problems.

Trash and Debris

The Lower Merion Township Public Works Department is waiving trash can limits until Friday, Sept. 9 so residents can get rid of storm-related debris, according to a message from ReadyNotifyPA. 

Residents can also bring their storm-related debris to the township transfer station at 1300 Woodbine Avenue in Penn Valley at no cost until Sept. 9, according to the message.

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From earlier reports:

Flooding

Some areas like experienced some of the most severe flooding. The Schuylkill River in West Conshohocken overflowed into business and corporate centers, parking lots, the Conshohocken SEPTA station and apartment/condominium complexes. In addition to train tracks and numerous other items including cars, a small, short-haired brown dog was found floating in the water at Bicentennial Park in Plymouth. 

In the and border, Paxon Hollow Road at Dog Kennel Road was impassable due to major flooding. The nearby park had turned into a large river, leaving roads very dangerous. Meanwhile in , parts of Glendale Road had also experienced flooding.

Other areas of major flooding included the area underneath the commuter tunnel in , which already had about a foot of water by Saturday evening. Flash flooding had also occurred around the Lower Merion area. Police issued out a statement by Saturday afternoon requesting, "that everyone restrict travel immediately and not use the roadways until Sunday afternoon...many locations are experiencing flooding conditions. The locations are too numerous to list."

Parts of , such as the creek area around Iven Avenue and Gulph Creek had already started to flood by Satruday evening. North Wayne and Walnut avenues had also experienced flooding. A home on on Lancaster Avenue also had major flooding in its front yard.

In , the susceptible flood-prone areas of Crum Creek near Lewis Run in the Echo Valley section of the township had overflowed from the storm.

Evacuations

Residents who resided in heavily flooded areas were evacuated from Saturday evening through Sunday morning.

In Tredyffrin on Saturday afternoon, large scale evacuations were underway in the Glenhardie community of Tredyffrin. According to fire and township officials, they had planned for this possibility, especially around Trout Creek.

In Radnor, two evacuation notices were sent out by the township to residents around Little Darby Creek of Malin Road, Briarwood Road and Amherst Circle and residents located on Gulph Creek on Willow Avenue were evacuated to the emergency shelter at Radnor High School.

Early Saturday evening, Marple officials ordered an emergency evacuation for residents around Darby Creek.

On Sunday morning, evacuations continued for Plymouth-Whitemarsh. Residents residing in high tower apartment complexes around the Schuylkill River were evacuated by township police.

Downed Wires and Trees

Numerous amounts of reports and calls were made and reported for downed wires and trees in almost every township in the greater Philadelphia area. One of the areas with the most amount of reports made for downed trees was the Bryn Mawr-Gladwyne area.

Power Outages

Thousands were without power throughout the storm. On Sunday morning around 6 a.m., PECO's outage map had estimated more than 3,500 residents in each of the surrounding counties–Chester, Delaware Montgomery and Philadelphia–were all without power.

Though some households received their power back throughout the day on Sunday, many were still without power by early evening Sunday.