Shapiro vows to help Berks County after record-breaking rainfall caused flooding
READING, Pa. (CBS) -- Authorities are still assessing the cost of the damage from Sunday's torrential rains.
There was storm damage all across the Philadelphia region, from a road washed away outside Reading to flooding in Hatboro and a confirmed tornado in Middletown in Delaware.
Woodbine Ostagne and her fiance spent the day cleaning up after her parents' house on Marshall Avenue flooded.
"They came from Haiti and they worked really, really hard to be able to pay this house off for over 20-something years, so I'm sure devastating that as soon as they pay it off, this happens," Ostagne said.
Record-breaking rainfall on Sunday led to catastrophic flooding across Berks County. The storm knocked out power for thousands.
Cars and homes were flooded. Roads got washed away.
An auto repair shop on Friedensburg Road in Stony Creek Mills collapsed.
During a tour of the damage Monday, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro vowed funding to help the community rebuild.
"There is a local threshold within the county," Shapiro said. "That's $1.9 million in damage. There is then a statewide threshold for the storm that occurred yesterday. That's around $23 million. That's why it's critically important that everybody assesses their damage and reports that to our county officials, so we have that number in place."
Shapiro also toured Antietam Middle-Senior High School, which was inundated with at least six feet of water.
Officials say 600 students may have to go somewhere else if the school isn't repaired by fall.
"We will probably have to make some arrangements to move students to other buildings or modular classrooms, things like that. We don't know how much of this building will be useable, if at all," Superintendent Heidi Rochlin said.
Prior to the storm, the school district was building a retaining wall to minimize flooding, but the wall wasn't built in time.
Nearby Antietam Creek overflowed its banks.
"All the classrooms on our first floor have been wiped out. The gym is not usable," Rochlin said.
The fire chief said his department rescued several people who were trapped in their homes at a nearby trailer park.
In Temple in Muhlenberg Township, the flooding was nothing like Diane Mulholland and her husband had ever seen before. The couple has lived along Mount Laurel Road for more than 20 years.
"I've never seen cars float by and riding mowers and huge trees," Mulholland said.
A rescue helicopter was called in to help evacuate several nearby homes.
"The water was up below the bay window in the front and they couldn't open their front door, so they had their little granddaughter and they took them out of that side window," Mulholland said.
Fortunately, no reports of any injuries.
