By David Torres and Iasiah James,
November 26th, 2025.Philadelphia has had a lot of storms recently. For example, tropical storm Ophelia in 2023, as well as the tornado/ thunderstorms on April 1st of that year. Most importantly, IDA. The question now is, how prepared have we become since then, and how can we get ready for future storms.
Flooding in Philadelphia is expected to worsen. According to flood factor, 178, 256 properties, or 31.5% of all properties in the city will be at risk of being damaged by flooding by 2055. Sarah Johnson, the warning coordinator meteorologist for NWS PHI/Mount Holly, helps keep partners warned about this, and other risks.
“I serve as a liaison between our office and external partners such as the media as well as emergency managers and first responders,.” Johnson said.
In September of 2021 Ida left severe flooding, damage to homes and businesses, and even deaths in the Philadelphia region. It even resulted in I676 being flooded and closed for days! So big, in fact, that NWS Mount Holly had everyone there during the storm.
“Ida is such a big event that we had to have basically all hands on deck during the forecast, issuing warnings, etc” Johnson said.
The problem with that? That meant that a lot of things weren't getting done, making Johnson have to step in.
“I was just kind of mopping up everything else. Jumping on phone calls with the city of Philadelphia we were talking about how bad the flooding is going to get.” Johnson said.
Tornados are another dangerous weather disaster that could cause a lot of damage to you, your family, and your home. They could also happen with little to no warning. Johnson shares what to do if you're under a tornado warning.
“Our safety messaging with tornados is, get to the lowest floor available to you, get to a small interior room and take shelter," Johnson said.
During high impact events, sometimes power goes out. That's why, as Johnson said, they always tell people to have multiple ways to get warnings.
“When it comes to the warnings, watches, and advisories we issue, we always tell people to make sure they have multiple ways to receive warnings, especially during a high impact event.” Johnson said.
As a part of the way to get warnings out to the public, the national government has made WHYY our primary entry point station. Ned Kurt, the Chief engineer at WHYY, explains how they got picked to be the area’s primary entry point.
“ We had developed a direct connection to Washington DC… So we ended up becoming the primary because we had the best, fastest way to receive these messages.” Kurt said.
So, what can we take away from this? Be ready. Get ready if you aren’t. Because, as Ida showed, every storm is different, and has different hazards.
“ If you find yourself in the unlikely event under both a tornado warning and a flash flood warning, you want to take protective action against the most immediate threat.” Johnson said.
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