By Alana Mauger

Melissa Hayes has lived in Port Providence, a small, picturesque community along the Schuylkill Canal at the Montgomery-Chester County border, since 2003. Her husband, Ian, has lived there since 1998. Neither were prepared for the deluge of rain brought by the remnants of Hurricane Ida on Sept. 1.

After Hurricane Floyd caused about two feet of flooding in the house in 1999, Ian began landscaping his large backyard to optimize drainage. Since then, the house, originally built in 1790, only got water in the basement during heavy rains and flooding. That changed with Ida.

“We had more than six feet on the first floor,” Melissa said, showing the water and mud line near the top of the staircase leading to the second floor.

Melissa chose to stay in the house with the couple’s three cats through the storm Wednesday night. She said she felt safe on her home’s second floor, even as her next-door neighbors were rescued by boat from their roof around 3 a.m.  

Ian estimates the water rose 20 to 25 feet in the backyard, eventually flooding the basement and entire first floor.

“This is going to keep happening,” he said. “Climate change is real.”

As of Sunday afternoon, the small Port Providence community remained without power and water. Just outside Ian and Melissa’s home, Upper Providence Township Department of Emergency Management set up one of several charging stations, as well as a truck providing residents with non-potable water. A bank of portable toilets and a sink were positioned down the street. Generator-run flood lights sat throughout the neighborhood.

Neighbors were helping neighbors. In their driveway, Ian and Melissa offered food and supplies. They lent their water pump to the young couple who lives next door. People from nearby communities drove by, offering food, gas and other supplies.

American Red Cross disaster workers Jeff and Eileen Moran walked the Port Providence community Saturday and Sunday surveying and documenting damage, distributing clean-up kits and offering hope to residents. They have a have a special connection to the waterfront community. The Moran’s used to live just down the river from Port Providence, and they, too, dealt with major flooding damage that prompted them to move several years ago.

“Thank you for being here,” Melissa told them. “We have a lot of support. We’re going to be okay.”

Ian agrees but acknowledges that the threat of another major flood is too much.

“We’re going to have to move. Leave all our friends,” he said. “I can’t do this again.”