Haverford Township Schools Closed, Flooding Closes Highways

The Haverford Township schools will be closed for Thursday, Sept. 8, according to the school district's website.

"The School District of Haverford Township will be closed today, September 8th, 2011, due to a power outage. All district buildings will be closed and all activities are canceled," the statement said on the school district's website.

Patch was unable to reach anyone at the school district's main number. The reason for the school closings was not given on the school district's website.

Floods from heavy rain forced road closures Wednesday night and Thursday morning in Haverford Township and the surrounding area, and the National Weather Service (NWS) was maintaining a Flash Flood Warning through 11:15 a.m.

In the early morning, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation reported via email bulletin the closures of more and more sections of the Schuylkill Expressway for weather-related reasons, as well as a crash between the Gladwyne and Belmont interchanges.

By 5:50 a.m., the agency reported, the eastbound expressway was closed for roughly 10 miles: from the Interstate 476 interchange through Girard Avenue in Philadelphia.

The westbound expressway was closed between Montgomery and Girard avenues, and the southbound Roosevelt Boulevard south of Fox Street closed "due to mudslide", according to a PennDOT email.

The NWS flood warning covered Delaware, Montgomery and western Philadelphia counties, as well as three counties in southern New Jersey.

"With saturated conditions, most of the rain is being converted to runoff," a 5 a.m. NWS bulletin read. "Small stream flooding is widespread, as is roadway and poor drainage flooding. This flooding will continue through the morning hours."

SEPTA's Paoli-Thorndale line in the Regional Rail system was reported to be back in service after a closure for debris cleanup Wednesday, and the Cynwyd Line remained in service. However, by 6 a.m., four other Regional Rail lines were down because of flooding, according to septa.org.