Crews in Chester County are working to stop raw sewage from gushing out of a broken pipe into a creek at Valley Forge National Park. (Published Tuesday, Mar 18, 2014) 
 
 Crews worked through the night to repair a broken sewer main that sent 5,000 gallons of sewage per minute into the creek at the Valley Forge National Historical Park. 
 
 The break occurred in the Valley Creek Trunk Sewer Force Main Tuesday morning near the intersection of Routes 252 and 23 in Tredyffrin Township, Chester County, Pa., according to township officials. 
 
 The 30-inch main is shared by Tredyffrin Township, Easttown Township, East Whiteland Township, Malvern Borough and Willistown Township. 
 
 Sewer Leak at Valley Forge Park 
 
 Water gushed onto the roadway at the intersection of Route 252 and Yellow Springs Road in Valley Forge Park causing traffic problems. (Published Tuesday, Mar 18, 2014) 
 
 Park rangers and police said water from the broken sewer main pushed through Route 23 in the park around 11 a.m. Tuesday and spilled off the side of the road. 
 
 Officials say the same main also broke six weeks ago, though they have not yet determined the cause of that break or the most recent one. 
 
 "I don't want to speculate right now," said William Martin, a Tredyffrin Township worker. "We've engaged other consultants to give us a long-term assessment of the pipe." 
 
 Overnight crews removed the pipe. A new pipe is expected to arrive at the scene around 7 a.m. Wednesday. 
 
 "We're working as fast as we can," Martin said. "Really it's a time game to get the pipe back in the ground." 
 
 The following roads that run through the park are closed: 
 
 Route 23 eastbound from Davis Road to Rt. 252 
 
 Route 23 westbound from N. Gulph Road to Rt. 252 
 
 Route 252 is closed northbound from the Pa. Turnpike 
 
 North and South Outer Line Drives 
 
 Gulph Road is closed from Thomas Road to Rt. 23 
 
 Yellow Springs Road is closed at the Covered Bridge 
 
 Public works officials expect these sections of road in the immediate area to be closed for several days as construction crews continue to repair the damaged water main and resurface portions of the street. 
 
 A PennDOT official told NBC10 that the broken main caused thousands of gallons of sewage per minute to leak into the Valley Creek, which feeds into the Schuylkill River. Officials say more than three million gallons of sewage may be in the creek. 
 
 Officials say the sewage leak doesn't pose a threat to humans but could be a safety concern for wildlife in the area. 
 
 NBC10 reached out to the Pa. Department of Environmental Protection asking how the leak could impact the surrounding area and the towns downriver, but officials have not responded to our calls. ||||| All roads running through the Valley Forge National Historical Park were closed Tuesday after a sewer main break caused extensive flooding. Some reports estimated the volume of spilled raw sewage to be about 5 million gallons. 
 
 Tredyffrin Township officials said the break appeared to have occurred around 10:30 a.m. in a pipe section of the Valley Creek Trunk Sewer Force Main near the intersection of Routes 252 and 23 in Upper Merion Township. 
 
 The spill drew a multi-agency response that also included contractors and environmental and engineering consultants, according to authorities. Officials said in a release that repairing the main “will require extensive damage assessment and traffic control.” 
 
 An initial radio report indicated about 5 million gallons of raw sewage spilled into the Valley Creek. Neither township nor state officials immediately returned requests for comment Tuesday evening. ||||| And although the rains are expected to show some restraint Friday, forecasters warned that flooding will continue - and perhaps even worsen - along the Delaware and the Schuylkill. 
 
 The Delaware at Trenton is predicted to crest three feet above flood stage Friday morning. The Schuylkill is expected to creep to about 2.5 feet above at Norristown on Friday, and remain a foot above flood stage in Philadelphia into Saturday. 
 
 Thursday afternoon, New Hope declared a limited state of emergency, empowering the borough to order evacuations. Bridges to New Jersey were closed. 
 
 "The rivers are swollen, and they're coming our way," said Tom Cinaglia, public works director in flood-prone West Norriton Township, along the Schuylkill in Montgomery County. 
 
 Along with other rivers and streams from Washington to Upstate New York, the Delaware and Schuylkill have been filled way beyond their banks by the tremendous rains from the remnants of an amorphous mass of moisture named Tropical Storm Lee. 
 
 "It's never been as bad as this," said Marco Derrow, who lives with his brothers across the street from the collapsed structures in Ambler. More than 100 water rescues were reported in Montgomery County alone. 
 
 Lee, which exceeded Hurricane Irene's rainfall totals in many areas, threatened to outdo even Hurricane Agnes, the legendary 1972 storm that devastated eastern Pennsylvania. Lee already has forced the evacuations of more than 100,000 people in northeastern Pennsylvania and hundreds around here. 
 
 More than nine inches of rain has been measured this week in Wynnewood, in Lower Merion, Montgomery County, and better than a half-foot in Wrightstown, Burlington County, and in Philadelphia, where Main Street in Manayunk became a canal annex. 
 
 Jenna Batt found that out firsthand Thursday morning. The commute from her Mount Airy home to the Manayunk beauty shop where she works typically takes 15 minutes. "It took me a little under two hours," she said. When she finally made it, she learned that her son's school was closed, meaning she had to go back to get him. 
 
 As of late Thursday, Lincoln Drive remained under two feet of water, and Kelly Drive was closed for road repairs, said Capt. Thomas Helker of the Philadelphia Police Department's traffic division. Kelly Drive might be closed until Sunday. 
 
 The stream and river crests turned out to be more vigorous than anticipated earlier in the week. 
 
 In Yardley, rescue workers helped residents leave 15 homes in the flooded River Mawr neighborhood, Code Enforcement Officer Wes Foraker said. 
 
 "This was worse than Irene. The water is two feet higher," Foraker said. 
 
 Area streams prone to flash flooding have been particularly jumpy. The Brandywine Creek, for example, burst out of its banks in Chester County, engulfed Route 30, and made it impossible to get from one side of Downingtown to the other Wednesday night. 
 
 More than 40 residents of an Avondale apartment complex had to be evacuated to a shelter set up by the Red Cross at Avon Grove High School in West Grove, a county spokeswoman said. 
 
 Haverford Township, Delaware County, declared a state of emergency as cars were stranded by rising waters. All schools were closed, and residents in the Wynnefield Drive area were offered shelter at Linwood Elementary School. 
 
 About 40 residents of Maple Avenue, in the hard-hit section of Whitpain Township, Montgomery County, near Ambler, took shelter in an American Legion post. 
 
 Derrow and his brothers, John and Giuseppe, said they were awakened early Thursday by water seeping into their duplex. Before long, firefighters were fanning the street pulling people out of their homes. As of Thursday, 7.69 inches had fallen this week in Ambler. 
 
 "Cars parked in the roads were flipped over," John Derrow said. "The firefighters were dragging people out. Some people are worried they'll condemn all our homes." 
 
 The creek-side flooding should subside Friday, as the forecast calls for less-robust showers, with rainfall totals of a quarter-inch or less. 
 
 The region could use a break. The 3.65 inches that fell Thursday in Philadelphia was a record for the date, and since Monday, 6.35 inches has been measured at Philadelphia International Airport. That brings the 2011 total to a staggering 48.48 inches, just over four feet. In 138 years of records, that total would put 2011 in the top 20 for precipitation for any calendar year - even if another drop doesn't fall until the ball drops on New Year's Eve at Times Square. 
 
 The Lee-related rains have been episodic and almost random in the immediate Philadelphia area, said Gary Szatkowski, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Mount Holly. That explains why some areas have been hit harder than others. 
 
 The rains also received an extra measure of juice from Katia, which is off the Atlantic Coast, and that added to the totals, said Jeff Masters, meteorologist with Weather Underground, a forecasting service. 
 
 The situation along the Delaware River Basin hasn't been as traumatic as it is in the Susquehanna's, where rains have pounded even more consistently, Szatkowski noted. Thus the mass evacuations. 
 
 "It's bad here," Szatkowski said. "It's extreme there." 
 
 Contact staff writer Anthony R. Wood at 610-761-8423 or twood@phillynews.com. 
 
 Contributing to this article were Inquirer staff writers Jeremy Roebuck, Mari A. Schaefer, and Kathleen Brady Shea.
– Perhaps today's most disgusting news: A sewer main at Valley Forge National Historic Park broke yesterday, sending 5,000 gallons of sewage per minute into the creek at the Pennsylvania park. Crews worked overnight to repair the 30-inch main, which had also broken six weeks ago, NBC Philadelphia reports. A replacement pipe was expected to arrive this morning. At least 5 million gallons of raw sewage have leaked into Valley Creek, WPVI reports. "All the water goes down into the Schuylkill River and then it goes into Philadelphia in the Delaware River. People get their drinking water out of this and there's the health problem," says one state conservation officer; but NBC Philadelphia says officials insist humans are at no risk from the leak. Wildlife, however, could be. All roads running through the park are currently closed, Philly.com reports; they are expected to remain closed for a few days as crews continue to work in the area.