For drivers, the biggest headache was the two-hour traffic snarl caused by flooding on the eastbound Schuylkill Expressway (I-76) near Belmont Avenue, a situation cleared shortly after 11:30 a.m.
Other flooded roadways included Lincoln Drive between Rittenhouse Street and Gypsy Lane; Route 42 in both directions near the Walt Whitman Bridge; Route 130 and Admiral Wilson Boulevard in Camden; and a ramp from City Avenue to the Schuylkill, as well as part of the expressway near South Street.
Accidents, downed trees, and disabled vehicles contributed to roadway woes.
SEPTA had delays on the rails all morning - tracks for the Market-Frankford El were underwater at 69th Street as of 9 a.m. - but by 2 p.m. the lines were back on schedule.
The threat of flooding didn't so much end Tuesday morning as it shifted northward, with Montgomery, Bucks, and Burlington Counties under a flash-flood warning for early afternoon, followed by a midafternoon flood advisory for parts of New Jersey. Torrential rain caused traffic to slow on I-295 in Cherry Hill about 2 p.m.
Between 6 and 7 a.m., Wilmington Airport reported 1.5 inches of rain, and the soaking moved from Delaware County into parts of Philadelphia, Montgomery, and Bucks Counties. Camden reported 2.4 inches in 80 minutes Tuesday morning.
The Somerton section of Northeast Philadelphia had 1.58 inches between 9:30 and 10:30, according to a National Weather Service spotter.
Chester, Lancaster, and York Counties were also part of an early flash-flood advisory, because of rains that might quickly fill small streams and low-lying roads.
Damaging winds were not a big worry for the Philadelphia area - despite the early tornado warning.
