Delaware River

The aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy was towed up the Delaware River yesterday, drawing crowds to waterfront parks and stopping cars on busy I-95. "Everybody was pulling over and taking pictures, then they would get back in, as I did, and drive a few blocks and pull over again," said Stephanie Peditto, a Department of Homeland Security employee. She came to see the carrier's arrival out of a deep interest in President Kennedy that led to fascination with the ship named in his honor when it was launched in 1967.

Gene and Joan Woodlee moved into their home atop a 70-foot-high Delaware River bluff in Florence Township about 10 years ago. Over the years, the edge of the bluff has crept toward their house at the rate of a foot a year. Now the land falls sharply down a slope of weeds and stumps from only one foot behind the Woodlees' swimming pool. Yesterday, Burlington County Engineer James L. Quinn told the freeholders they might have to buy the homes of the Woodlees and a neighbor before there is a further "failure" of the bluff.

Supporters of deepening the Delaware River navigation channel an additional five feet are making a big push now to secure federal funds that soon will be designated for navigation-improvement projects this year. Before Christmas, Congress approved a fiscal 2012 spending plan that for the first time specified an amount, $74 million, to go for navigation construction aimed at improving traffic efficiency on U.S. rivers. Deepening the Delaware's channel from 40 to 45 feet qualifies as such a project.

The body of a 17-year-old boy who disappeared Monday while swimming in the turbulent water of the Poquessing Creek in Northeast Philadelphia was found yesterday in the Delaware River. Dante Smith was found shortly before noon by the Philadelphia police marine unit and the Army Corps of Engineers about 20 feet from the bank, near the 8700 block of State Road, authorities said. Smith, who had gone to the creek with a friend, went into the water to retrieve a book bag or knapsack but was overpowered by the current even though he was a strong swimmer and was familiar with the creek, said Lt. George Ondrejka of the marine unit.

The worst of the rain and wind might pass through this area Sunday, but for some communities along the Delaware River, bigger destruction is yet to come. In a day or so, the swollen river is expected to crest to levels reminiscent of devastating floods in 2004, 2005, and 2006. Gov. Corbett said parts of Pennsylvania - not just the Philadelphia area, but also the Lehigh Valley and eastern Poconos - could experience "severe flooding. " On major rivers, especially the Delaware, the risk of major flooding will grow even as the storm passes on Sunday.

After a long day at work, River Villas residents don't have to look any farther than their backyard for the perfect way to unwind. "They come home after a grueling day and can walk down to the river," said the property manager, Mara Augustine. "They have that release, and they don't have to drive an hour to the ocean. " A walking path, also suitable for bicycles, lines the perimeter of the complex, creating the perfect vantage point from which to watch sailboats go by. Located on the Delaware River in Palmyra, the complex is a hop, skip and a jump away from the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge and Philadelphia, and also offers easy access to Cherry Hill and other South Jersey points.

When the dreaded snakehead fish first showed its pointy head and spiky grin at FDR Park in South Philadelphia in the summer of 2004, fisheries officials braced for the worst. Tidal sloshings connect the park's ponds and lagoons to the Schuylkill, and ultimately to the Delaware. Sooner rather than later, they figured, a snakehead would make a break for it and begin to colonize the rivers. Now they know they were right. State fisheries officials this week confirmed - as much as they could, given that they weren't present - that an angler had reeled in a snakehead off a Delaware River pier north of the Navy Yard in September.

CAPE MAY - The heavy shipping that produces urban pollution in the Delaware River near Philadelphia usually isn't a problem downstream, at the mouth of the Delaware Bay. But scientists want to know how other activities - including species habitat destruction and overfishing - may be affecting the vast estuary, and how the exchange between the two waterways affects the quality of brackish flow. This summer, a research team from the University of Delaware's College of Earth, Ocean and Environment installed a data-collection device aboard the Twin Capes, one of the vessels of the Cape May-Lewes Ferry, operated by the Delaware River and Bay Authority.

Johan Printz came to this piece of land along the Delaware River in 1643. I got there about 350 years later. Printz was looking for a place to establish the capital of New Sweden. I was looking for weather pictures. Over the years I returned a few times, and there were always people in the park - feeding the geese, fishing from the wall that overlooks the river, walking a dog on a chilly fall day. There were workers from the nearby Boeing plant eating lunch on the grass, a neighborhood toddler riding in a wagon pulled by his father.

The body of a Frankford man who disappeared while swimming in the Delaware River last weekend was recovered Wednesday, authorities said Friday. Sidney Spence, 45, of the 4700 block of James Street, was with four other people in a boat last Saturday night when he followed two others for a swim, said Tiffany Hackett, 32, his girlfriend. Hackett, who also was swimming, said that within minutes, Spence appeared to be struggling. Hackett said she tried to help but then began struggling herself.