PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Days after the remnants of Hurricane Ida slammed the area, floodwaters from the Schuylkill River have receded from Main Street in Manayunk, but there's still a lot of cleanup to be done.
Margaret from Norristown was making her way out of Manayunk on slippery Main Street.
"When we arrived, the streets were just inches of mud," she said. She and her husband Malcolm were here helping their friend, artist Jonathan Pinkett clean out his gallery.
"There's mud in the entrance, just when you walk in there’s mud everywhere on the first floor. All of the pictures were pretty much destroyed by the water," she continued. "It's slippery and the trucks have been going non-stop since we got here."
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"His store had water almost up to 9 feet inside the store itself," said Malcolm.
Kristen McCollum, who works as a server, was slowly making her way to her job on foot.
"Usually I take the bus," she explained, "but the bus stop that they dropped me off at was half an hour away, so I'm currently walking there right now."
Resident Eric Lacroix was also walking the closed off, muddy street. "It's really impressive and terrifying that it’s still that much gunk on the roads," he said.
Oaklyn, New Jersey resident Chris Bogliole said he was saddened by the scene on Main Street. He said he used to visit the area a lot, and parked on a side street so he could walk by and see what the storm had done.
"If you've got a good vantage point, you could really see the amount of destruction that happened, especially the lower parts like Mad River and Dwelling. It's just crazy between the river deck being gone of Mad River, to all of the trash and mud and everything, it's just sad to see."
Despite the mess, however, Margaret and Malcolm have noticed some improvement.
"I can actually see the street," said Margaret. "When we arrived we couldn't, so they're doing a really good job out here."
"It's treacherous walking because everything is really slippery," added Malcolm. "There's lots of mud."
"A lot of water, and a lot of trucks," observed Margaret.
Those trucks were working hard scooping up all of the mud, or pushing it off to the side like in a snowstorm.