Firefighters rescued children from a school bus in Wilmington, Del., Wednesday after it became stranded in rising flood waters. It was a harrowing commute for about a dozen students from Moyer Academy returning from a sporting event.
The driver attempted to navigate waterlogged Gov. Printz Boulevard in Wilmington about 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, but the yellow bus loaded full of children didn't get very far -- getting stranded amid torrential downpours.
"It was an unfortunate mistake by the driver," said Tyree Miller, Moyer Academy's athletic director.
All the students are okay and the water was much deeper than it originally looked to the driver, according to Miller.
"Kids were hanging out of the window and messing around and having fun," said Alexis Ortega, who watched the bus from a nearby shopping center parking lot.
Ortega said the Wilmington Fire Department used inflatable life rafts to get over to the bus' back door and rescue the children. The children ranged from sixth grade to seniors in high school.
Miller applauded the fire department for doing a great job getting the children off the bus and into small boats. Ortega said the water reached the top of the wheel well.
NBC10 First Alert Weather Chief Meteorologist Glenn "Hurricane" Schwartz warned viewers that the rising water can be misleading and not to attempt to drive through water during a storm.
"Turn around, don't drown," Hurricane warned on Wednesday evening's broadcasts.
More than 2 inches of rain fell in the City of Wilmington over the course of the day. Those totals are only expected to rise as the rain continues to fall.
Passengers were stranded on top of a SEPTA bus in Manayunk Wednesday night.
Two passengers and the bus driver were on top of the SEPTA bus on Flat Rock Road off of Main Street awaiting rescue, according to fire officials.
The bus got stuck in about 4 feet of water.
The passengers and drivers were rescued by raft by fire crews and examined by medical professionals.
No one was injured in the incident.
This story is developing. Check back with NBC10 for updates.
More than 60 New Jersey high school seniors were arrested early Thursday after they allegedly broke into their school for a class prank overnight, urinating in the hallways, flipping desks and greasing door handles, police say.
Police responded to a burglary alarm at Teaneck High School shortly before 2:30 a.m. When they arrived, several students tried to run away but officers found dozens of teens still there, some hiding, and significant damage throughout the school, according to Teaneck Police Sgt. John Garland.
Garland said officers found balloons throughout the building, flipped desks, petroleum jelly on doorknobs and urine in the hallways. Police also watched some of the alleged criminal activity on the closed-circuit security system as it was happening.
"I've been a police officer 19 years, and this is the craziest thing I've ever seen," Garland said.
Several of the students allegedly told police that it was all part of a senior class prank, he said.
"They're learning the hard way that it's not too funny," Garland said.
About 10 law enforcement agencies responded to the scene. Officers had to make several trips to transport the students to the precinct, because there were so many kids taken into custody.
Sixty-two students were arrested. Thirty-eight of them are juveniles and were released to their parents, police said. The other 24 are 18. All face burglary and criminal mischief charges.
"They're all in some pretty serious trouble," Garland said.
Teaneck High School principal Dennis Heck told NBC 4 New York that school was open Thursday.
"You can imagine how disappointed I am," he said.
Superintendent Barbara Pinsak said the school district was weighing its options for disciplinary action.
Thursday morning, balloons and streamers could still be seen strewn about the floor of the school.
Flood forecasts are coming in from the National Weather Service for our area from yesterday's deluge.
The forecasts for area rivers and creeks are listed below with the flood stage, the time at which the water is expected to reach its peak height and what that crest level will be.
Most flood deaths occur in automobiles, according to the National Weather Service which advises: Never drive your vehicle into areas where the water covers the roadway. Flood waters are usually deeper than they appear and just one foot of flowing water is enough to sweep vehicles off the road.
| Body of Water | Flood Stage | Expected Crest | Time |
| Rancocas Creek, Pemberton, Burlco, NJ | 2.5 Feet | 3.1 Feet | Thur 8 p.m. |
| Assunpink Creek, Trenton, Mercer Co, NJ | 8.5 Feet | 11.7 Feet | Thur 6 a.m. |
| Neshaminy Creek, Langhorne, Bucks Co, Pa. | 9.0 Feet | 14.7 Feet | Thur 4 a.m. |
| Perkiomen Creek, Graterford, Montco, Pa. | 11.0 Feet | 15.07 Feet | Thur 3 a.m. |
| Schuylkill River, Norristown, Montco, Pa. | 13.0 Feet | 20.8 Feet | Thur 2 a.m. |
| Schuylkill River, Pottstown, Montco, Pa. | 12.5 Feet | 13.5 Feet | Thur 10 a.m. |
| Schuylkill River, Philadelphia, Pa. | 11.0 Feet | 13.8 Feet | Thur 8 a.m. |
| Brandywine Creek, Chadds Ford, Chester Co, Pa. | 9.0 Feet | 16.0 Feet | Thur 5 a.m. |
| Brandywine Creek, Wilmington, New Castle Co, Del | 16.5 Feet | 19.8 Feet | Thur 8 a.m. |
| Red Clay Creek, Wooddale, New Castle Co, Del | 7.0 Feet | 8.7 Feet | Thur 2 a.m. |
| Brandywine Creek, Downingtown, Chester Co, Pa. | 7.0 Feet | 12.43 Feet | Thur 12 a.m. |
| Chester Creek, Chester, Delaware Co, Pa. | 8.0 Feet | 13.3 Feet | Wed 11 p.m. |
It’s a sobering sight from the back of a SEPTA bus.
A passenger takes off his belt, ties it around his wrist like a tourniquet and appears to inject a substance into his hand in the middle of the afternoon. Just feet away, fellow passenger, Aleesa McIer records the entire event and posts it online.
"Oh my God," she whispers as the man yields the needle.
Over the course of several minutes, the man, who identifies himself as Scott in the video, uses the needle at least three times. NBC10.com cannot independently confirm whether the man was using any illicit materials or doing anything wrong. We have concealed his face for those reasons.
"He was a very nice guy. But I find it’s kind of shameful and a little disrespectful that he would do this on the bus," McIer told NBC10.com in an interview this week.
The 22-year-old from Kensington says it happened the afternoon of March 11 on SEPTA’s Route 14 bus -- which runs from the Frankford Transportation Center through Northeast Philly and to the Oxford Valley Mall in Langhorne, Pa. McIer, who goes to school in Bucks County, regularly rides the route and says she has seen the man before.
"I guess you see me doing my thing, but it’s alright, right? But I don’t judge," the man said to McIer in the video.
"Right. You shouldn’t do that," she replies.
"He said he OD’d a few times. He said ‘I’ve been doing this since I’ve been young,’" she said recalling her conversation with the man. She said the man told her he regularly came down to Philadelphia to purchase drugs.
Scores of similar videos are posted online every week. The Facebook group People of SEPTA, whose tagline is "What the El," is famous for exposing riders alleged bad and bizarre behavior on area buses, trains and trolleys. Many of the videos and photos show apparent drug-behavior. More than 74,000 Facebook users like the page, engage in conversation and share the videos with their friends.
In March, video of a mom who appeared to be extremely impaired on a crowded SEPTA bus with her young daughter went viral. Police and the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services launched an investigation and took the woman in for questioning.
"That’s shocking and it sticks in the back of your head," SEPTA Police Chief Thomas Nestel said of McIer’s video. But the chief was quick to call such apparent public drug use rare on the transit system.
"When our plainclothes officers are out there riding the buses and subways every day, they occasionally see this and it’s a rare occasion," he said.
Nestel said the department did not specifically track drug use on the system or at stations. The statistics they do keep include drug-related charges for possession.
The Philadelphia region is the epicenter of heroin distribution in the Northeast. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy says heroin use has been on the rise in our area recently as purity and availability increases. Officials say the drug regularly lands in the city on maritime and air cargo shipments from Central and South America.
"Because of the purity of heroin that we know that many people will move from prescription pain medication to snorting or inhaling the drug, because it is so pure and then moving to injection drug use," Acting U.S. Drug Czar Michael Botticelli tells NBC10.com.
Botticelli’s office is currently funding staff who focus on our "high-intensity drug trafficking area” and work with federal, state and local law enforcement to cut off the supply. However, like Nestel, he cautions that the drug’s public use may not be as widespread as it appears.
"There's been so much more attention paid to the heroin issue. I have a feeling that people are just noticing it more as opposed to that there's really been substantial increase in terms of public use," he said.
McIver said she’s not sure what compelled her to record and post the video, but that she got flak for it.
"I did get a lot of negativity towards the video. I’m from Kensington. I’ve seen a lot of things. Something just made me want to record him," she said.
She didn’t call police to report what she witnessed and when asked why, McIer said: "I’m not going to snitch."
"It’s very concerning that we as a society, we’ll videotape a person…[rather] than calling the police for help," Nestel said. The chief says learning of cases like this after the fact makes it nearly impossible for his officers and detectives to get involved.
"It’d be great to handle the problem that was happening, because trying to track down information later is much more difficult than tracking down a bus and getting someone help right away," he said.
Nestel recognizes that bus or train passengers might be hesitant about calling police for help when they’re sitting feet from the doer in a closed, moving vehicle. So the transit system has decided to launch a text-to-911 service. Passengers and emergency dispatchers will be able to have a back-and-forth conversation over text message.
"This is going to be for everything," he said of the system that will launch this summer. "It’ll be manned 24x7 and regardless day or night and they will get that information to the correct person and agency or patrol that needs it."
Nestel believes could help police better respond to more incidents, which they might otherwise learn about after the fact in an online posting.
"We’ll take information from whatever source we can get it from. We prefer that people contact us directly," he said.
Contact Vince Lattanzio at 610.668.5532, vince.lattanzio@nbcuni.com or follow @VinceLattanzio on Twitter.
What started as a report of an overnight gas leak turned into a three-alarm fire in Center City Philadelphia that burned up apartments and a home.
The explosion and subsequent blaze at 23rd and Naudain Streets led to the evacuation of the 2300 block of Naudain and left at least one person hurt.
Philadelphia firefighters said they first responded to the scene because of a call for a gas leak at a home shortly before 2:15 a.m.
"Upon the arrival, they obtained a high reading of CO and they recognized that there was fire in the basement," said Deputy Commissioner Richard Davison.
"After the fire had started there was an explosion," said Davison.
More crews were called to the scene because of the explosion that led to a quickly-spreading blaze, according to firefighters.
Medics rushed one woman to the Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania for treatment for fumes.
About two dozen other people were evacuated to the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts on S Broad Street where the American Red Cross supplied aid.
In total, about 40 people were forced from their homes including from 11 apartment units and from homes on the south side of the street. A handful of pets also got out OK.
Officers blocked roads in the area as fire crews battled the blaze. PGW crews also responded to the scene due to the gas leak.
It took firefighters a little less than three hours to bring the blaze under control.
Some neighbors in the area called NBC10 to report that they felt or heard an explosion in the area.
Thick black smoke could be seen pouring from the scene. Hours later smoke continued to rise from the partially collapsed ruins that littered the street below.
Firefighters said it could have been worse if someone didn't call 911 when they recognized fumes.
"We're very grateful," said Davison. "That's part of the system, the people, the residents of Philadelphia, to notify the 911 system when they are alarmed about any smell, any incident."
If residents didn't call 911, people might have been in the home when it blew.
Davison said that the fire marshal and PGW would determine if gas caused the home to explode.
The blast also knocked out power including to nearby Albert Greenfield Elementary School forcing the dismissal of the school.
Concerned local residents informed The Alternative Press of Lower Providence (LP TAP) about a possible child abduction attempt right in our own backyards. Lower Providence Police Department were called, and a report was filed, though the LPPD could not be reached by press for comment Wednesday or Thursday morning.
Callers told LP TAP that around 4:10 p.m. Wednesday evening, a young girl was stopped by a man trying to “snag a kid in our neighborhood.” The report was called in from the area of Brimfield and Woodland avenues, nearly a block down from Woodland Elementary School.
A car, described by witnesses as a red, four-door little car, late 1970s model, “boxy older car” stopped a young girl walking to a friend’s home. The man, described by the child as a white male in his late 30s with dark or black hair asked if “she was OK” through a rolled down window. The man approached her as she crossed Woodland Avenue at the corner of Brimfield.
When an adult approached the driveway of the girl’s destination, the car sped off. The parents of the girl’s friend immediately dialed police, who arrived to the scene to file a report.
Back on Feb. 1, both Lower Providence and West Norriton police departments were investigating two incidents of attempted child luring. One incident, reported on Jan. 27 took place when a 10-year-old girl was approached by a suspect near her own residence at Liberty Avenue in West Norriton Township.
A second attempt was reported on Jan. 29, when a 12-year-old girl was followed from a school bus stop at East Mount Kirk Avenue at Walker Lane in Lower Providence Township.
Police released the following description to the public on Feb. 1, noting the suspect was similar in both cases in January 2014.
"The suspect is described as a white male, 20 to 30 years of age, clean shaven, short dark hair, and wearing dark clothing,” said the LPPD report. “The vehicle is described as a white or gray, slightly lifted, two door pick up truck with a 4x4 decal on the tailgate. It has a short bed with a silver toolbox behind the cab and a windshield visor decal with horizontal and vertical lines. The vehicle had a rusted body with either decals or paint peeling that looked like paint splatter.”
It is unknown if the cases from January are related to the incident which was reported on Wednesday night. The physical descriptions of the male are similar, though police have not yet released a connection to the cases. The vehicles described were very different.
Anyone with information on any of the above-mentioned cases should contact LPPD at 610-539-5901.
If a Philadelphia councilman gets his way, smoking a joint will cost you cash, but won’t land you in handcuffs.
Councilman-at-Large Jim Kenney introduced legislation today that changes city laws about marijuana so that anyone possessing a small amount wouldn't be placed under arrest.
"An arrest is a very traumatic experience for people, especially if it's the first time and you're a kid," Kenney told NBC10.com. "There's a lot of interactions that go wrong with an arrest -- the person could get hurt, the officer could get hurt."
According to Kenney’s office, the proposal calls for police to not arrest anyone caught with one ounce (30 grams) or less of marijuana. Instead, the drug user would pay a $25 fine.
The fine can be paid in person, online or by mail and then the marijuana user would have the incident removed from his or her record.
"After discussions with Philadelphia’s criminal justice stakeholders, my requests to end mandatory custodial arrests (i.e. handcuffs and a night in jail) were deemed an 'administrative burden' on our courts and police,” said Kenney. “Public officials shouldn’t be worried about ‘administrative burdens’ when our inaction is senselessly burdening over 4,000 people with life-changing criminal records each year.”
Last Month, a slew of advocates testified in council chambers including representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), The Pennsylvania chapter of NORML and Temple University students looking for sensible drug policy, according to Kenney's office.
The issue of what to do about people possessing small amounts of weed has been a hot topic for some time.
"The D.A. is diverting them anyway so why are we locking them up?" asked Kenney.
Back in 2010, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams said that his office would start sending anyone caught with 1 ounce or less of weed to a lower court where they could pay a fine rather than face jail time.
"That practice gave me the impetus to go forward and say, 'well if we're not going to prosecute and these folks are going to go to a diversionary program anyway why are we wasting our time arresting them?'" asked Kenney, who has also recently rallied to try and lure Sriracha hot sauce production to Philly.
Kenney says the new law would help cut down on about 17,000 hours spent yearly by Philadelphia Police on marijuana arrests that often don’t result in prosecution.
"Those officers could be doing more important things than locking up a kid who's got two joints in his pocket," Kenney said. "Police officers on their shift can stay on their shift to combat more serious crime."
Kenney said the police time it takes to book minor drug offenders and hold them in cells costs about $3 million annually.
There is no age limit to the measure and it would cover people caught smoking and/or possessing.
Kenney pointed out that stop-and-frisk being is responsible for the drug arrests of many young people especially African-Americans who made up 89 percent of marijuana possession arrests in the city in 2012.
"I'm sure white kids are smoking as much reefer as anybody else but it seems (Blacks) are the ones getting pinched," Kenney said.
Kenney said the current system where it could take up to a year for a minor weed arrest to clear the system also causes problems because it forces job seekers to disclose an arrest. Kenney's proposal would shorten the length of time to clear one's record.
Kenney said the measure is in no way revolutionary and would be similar to measures in other major cities and even suburban counties.
Recently, Washington D.C. Council voted to decriminalize small amounts of pot. Similar laws are on the books in more than one dozen other municipalities.
The bill will go the mayor's desk for final approval.
Flooding along the Schuylkill River reached levels higher than two previous hurricanes leaving major thoroughfares and neighborhoods washed out.
"The Schuylkill River crested at 13.91 feet. That is actually higher than the Schuylkill was during Hurricane Irene and higher than Superstorm Sandy," Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said at a press briefing on Thursday. A Flood Warning remains in effect until the river drops below flood stage on Thursday night.
The city broke a rainfall record on Wednesday after 4.81 inches of rain was recorded at Philadelphia International Airport, the National Weather Service said. The previous record for April 30 of 3.29 inches of rainfall was set back in 1947.
Up at Northeast Philadelphia Airport, nearly 5 inches of rainfall was recorded.
Nutter said this large rainstorm was the seventh worst in Philadelphia's history.
Lincoln Drive, which weaves beside the Wissahickon Creek, and Kelly and Martin Luther King Drives, which straddle the Schuylkill River remained washed out Thursday afternoon as water levels remained over flood stage.
Sam Phillips, Philadelphia's Emergency Management Director, expected the drives to remain closed through Thursday evening's commute as they await water levels to drop.
"We did have a pretty significant flooding event and we still have a lot of water in the Main Street Manayunk area," she said.
Manayunk, which is prone to flooding, is where residents of the Venice Lofts had to be rescued by boat Thursday morning. On Wednesday night, four people had to be rescued from the top of a SEPTA bus trapped in rising waters along Flat Rock Road. That bus remained almost fully submerged most of the day Thursday.
The Philadelphia Fire Department responded to 59 service calls between midnight and 5 a.m. on Thursday and the Philadelphia Police Marine Unit was called out 15 times to rescue stranded drivers and homeless people living along the Schuylkill's banks, officials said.
Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Joe Sullivan said officers responded to 3,000 calls over the past 24 hours -- the majority of which were related to the storm.
Heavy water also flooded out a steam line that runs under 16th Street near Cherry Street, knocking out power to traffic lights along John F. Kennedy Boulevard and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
Nutter said generators have been deployed to those intersections to get the lights working. However, 16th Street remains closed between the Parkway and Market Street as crews work to repair the issue.
Sullivan said the police department will be fanning out across Center City to assist with expediting the evening rush as well as providing detours in neighborhoods that have flooding.
Residents whose homes were damaged by flood waters are being asked to contact 311.
Phillips said officials are tallying damage estimates and are investigating whether they will be able to declare a disaster emergency. Doing so, would free up funding for those affected.
Officials have also asked residents who live near abandoned homes to keep an vigilant eye on the properties as they could have been weakened by the heavy rain and be prone to collapse.
A woman was killed when her car slammed into a SEPTA trolley head-on at the corner of Frankford Avenue and Delaware Avenue in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia.
The view from SkyForce10 showed that the car had major front-end damage. It was lodged up under one end of the trolley.
"It sounded like an explosion," said Larry O'Brien who witnessed the crash.
"Unfortunately the driver was driving down Frankford Avenue and it's a closed-off street," O'Brien said. "She saw the trolley coming out and it seemed like she tried to go around the trolley but she actually went into the trolley at full speed."
O'Brien said he ran over to see if he could help the victim, but it was too late.
SEPTA spokesman Manuel McDonnell Smith said the trolley was going about 5 miles per hour and that the car was traveling at a "high rate of speed" when the crash occurred. O'Brien said it looked to him like the car was going 20 to 25 miles an hour.
The trolley operator and all six passengers were being checked out after complaints of back and shoulder pain.
The Route 15 trolley will be shuttle busing between the Delaware Avenue loop and 26th and Girard Avenue. Regular trolley service is available between 26th and Girard and the West Philadelphia Terminus at 63rd and Girard, according to Smith.
A man apparently on LSD was taken into custody after he was seen walking down a Radnor Township street swinging two machetes.
The man was spotted in the area of Donna Lane and S. Devon Avenue Thursday swinging the machetes before walking into a house on Donna.
Radnor Township Police walked up to the house and saw the man kneeling on the floor with the machetes on the ground in front of him.
They say the man then leaned toward the machetes, prompting police to quickly secure the weapons, although that did little to control the subject who took to a fighting stance.
The man, authorities say, refused to follow command so they used oleoresin capsicum (pepper) spray and took the man into custody.
Police say the man told them he took LSD, so he was taken to Bryn Mawr Hospital's emergency room for treatment.
Officials have the weapons in their possession.
No word on what charges the machete-swinging man will face.
