“Written 11:20, Sunday night. Aug. 9, 1942.  The day of the great Chadds Ford flood.
One that will go down in history.”

So wrote Chadds Ford resident, Chris Sanderson from his home
on Creek Road, more than 68 years ago.

As I crossed the Brandywine on my way to work during Monday
morning’s torrential rains, I looked over the bridge noticing that the rushing
waters were even with the banks and ready to spill over. I began to wonder
which way I would get home that night if the rains continued.

Those of us who live in Chadds Ford and need to cross the
Brandywine daily know what heavy rainstorms can mean–how do we get where we
need to go? We’re sort of like a little island unto ourselves at times.

The aptly named Creek Road south is out …you can’t even get
100 yards down to Station Way. Once, thinking I was being clever, I came down
Bullock Road and turned right. Big mistake! The water that covered the road
just around the corner was indistinguishable from the rushing Brandywine.

Realizing my little car would float rather easily I made a
neat three-point turn and headed back the way I came.

Creek Road to the north is out, as you will find flooding
just above the Chadds Ford Days fields and beyond Brinton’s Bridge Road.

And if Chadds Ford is flooded, then Route 926 is out, as it
is usually flooded at Pocopson at the garden center. Whenever Chadds Ford and
Birmingham are mentioned on the 6 p.m. news, you’re sure to see some unlucky
motorist (once it was even a UPS truck) stranded on top of the bridge with
water swirling all around. It’s a favorite place for network news cameras to
hang out, like a spiders waiting for their prey.

To get an idea of the June 29, 2006 flood, when the
Brandywine crested at 13.5 feet, about 4.5 feet about flood level, take a look
at the great photos by Robert F. Sparre, President of Dorset Connects, http://www.sparre.us/2006FloodPics.htm.

So how do we get off our island?

As I work south of Route 1, I usually drive down Route 202
into Delaware, take a right on Route 92 and cross the higher Thompson’s Bridge
at the Brandywine Creek State Park–a beautiful trip.  Just follow the steady line of cars in front of you who are
in the same mess and you’ll eventually come up on the other side near
Centreville, Del. And those of you who live west of the Brandywine, just
reverse the route.

More macadam parking lots, wider roads and building on the
flood plains have produced more flooding for us in recent years. However, even
in the days when the swamp in back of Hanks Place was a cow pasture (yes!),
Chadds Ford was not without its historic floods, such as the great flood of
1942.

On that day, Chris Sanderson’s mother Hanna, then in her
early eighties, wrote in her diary:“Sunday, August 9, 1942- A rainy day and
comfortable. Up at 9 a.m.–soon had the work done. Then discovered there was a
flood on the Brandywine. Biggest in years. Whole Chadds Ford is under water.
But at even time, we have not been touched, thankful.”

Oh yes, and if worse comes to worse, there’s always the
Tyler McConnell Bridge!