Heavy rains also pounded the Poconos and hammered northern New Jersey, where officials are seeking federal aid, for the second time in five days.
Some flooding remains a possibility Saturday morning along the Delaware River near Trenton and Yardley, where the river is projected to crest at 21 feet, or a foot above flood stage. However, that's a full foot below earlier projections, and only minor to moderate flooding is anticipated.
Flood waters covered some Philadelphia roads Friday along the Delaware and Schuylkill, but overall local officials, riverfront residents and the weather folks agreed that nature was gentler than anticipated.
The rapidly rushing, light-chocolate waters of the Schuylkill reached brim-ful, but receded before causing any real problems.
"We dodged a bullet," said Allan Gehret, who built a stone home in West Norriton, Montgomery County, right on the river bank back in 1991. Since then he's experienced at least eight floods, including an ugly one in October.
But on Friday, the Schuylkill behaved more like a considerate house guest. Although water did lap into some yards, it mostly kept to itself, and didn't spill anything.
Across the river in Lumberton, Dallas Brennan, 76, who has lived next to a Rancocas Creek tributary for 40 years, was unimpressed with what he saw.
"Just a nuisance," he declared, not in a league with floods he witnessed in 2004 and in April 2007, when a nor'easter hammered South Jersey with several inches of rain.
Rain-swollen waters did provide some anxious moments Friday morning along the Delaware Canal - where millions have been spent in recent years to repair stretches of the canal bed and towpath ravaged by floods of years past. The river was rushing over stretches of the towpath into the canal by 10 a.m.
