City Hall water damage shuts Philly Council chambers

Listen
 A crew works to clean up Philadelphia City Council chambers. (Tom MacDonald/WHYY)

A crew works to clean up Philadelphia City Council chambers. (Tom MacDonald/WHYY)

The weather has caused some flooding in Philadelphia City Hall, meaning that Thursday’s regular meeting could be moved to another room.

Public Property Commissioner Bridget Collins-Greenwald said subfreezing temperatures caused a pipe to rupture on the ninth floor of City Hall, spilling water all the way down to City Council Chambers on the fourth floor.

“What we have done is take an all-hands-on deck-approach,” she said Tuesday. “Everyone we had out in the field that wasn’t dealing with another incident out there came into City Hall.”

As City Hall workers assessed mopped up the water and assessed the damage, a contractor brought in special equipment to dry out the rug in Council chambers and mitigate any other damages.

  • WHYY thanks our sponsors — become a WHYY sponsor

“We don’t know the extent of the damage as of yet, we’re still doing that assessment,” Collins-Greenwald said. “It doesn’t seem that much, this was just a quick look-around.”

In 2002, a broken pipe resulted in about $2 million in water damage to Council chambers and the Mayor’s Reception Room

WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today.

Want a digest of WHYY’s programs, events & stories? Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Together we can reach 100% of WHYY’s fiscal year goal