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When Jamaal Chambers,
the building’s facility manager,
stepped into the lobby that
morning — one of the few
people able to enter the building
that day — there was already
two-and-a-half feet of water
sloshing around in the basement.

Submerged chairs, storage bins
and computers were peeking
above the water’s surface.

“It was literally like a scene
from the Titanic,” Chambers
said. The water levels in the
basement eventually rose to
more than seven feet, flooding
and damaging the auditorium,
a collection of computers the
Jewish Federation was preparing
to donate, as well as the
Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall
of Fame, which the building has
housed on a temporary basis
since 2019.

The building lost power due
to the flooding, as the water
damaged the facility’s electrical
panels, main controls, HVAC
system and elevators — a similar
fate to other buildings within a
two-block radius, including the
new Giant grocery store on 23rd
Street. No other Jewish community
buildings or campuses were
affected by the flooding.

Chambers and his team, as
well as Robb Quattro, director
of information technology
and systems, worked 12-hour
days the three days following
the flooding, through Labor
Day weekend and into Rosh
Hashanah. The process of
removing what PECO estimated
to be more than 600,000 gallons
of water from the building
took more than four days.

Restoration companies respon-
sible for siphoning water out
of the flooded buildings were
spread thin.

Chambers said that by
standing in the parking lot of
2100 Arch St., he could see a
series of hoses draining water
from the properties down the
street. JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Buildings within a three-block radius of the Jewish Community
Services Building also flooded.

Photo by Jamaal Chambers
“Every building was doing
the exact same thing we were
doing,” Chambers said.

While the water was being
drained, Quattro and his team
worked to restore the virtual
private network that could allow
employees to access the build-
ing’s servers remotely.

By accessing the backup
server at the disaster recovery
site at the Jewish Federation’s
Schwartz campus, Quattro and
his team were able to restore the
VPN that day.

The extent of the flooding in
the Jewish Community Services
Building was unprecedented,
Quattro said, calling it fortu-
nate to have a disaster recovery
site that was operational and
updated. “We’ve had this for nine
years out there,” Quattro said.

“But this latest cloud technology
allowed us to restore [the VPN]
within hours.”
Power was restored to the
building on the morning of Sept.

9, a week after the flooding.

Though the building is
now cleared of water and the
power is back on, the Jewish
Federation will spend the
remainder of the week checking
the building’s systems to assess
the extent of the damage, such
as whether the elevators and
electrical outlets are working
properly. The Jewish Federation’s
insurance company has yet
to access the full building to
estimate the cost of the damages.

But Jewish Federation execu-
tives are expecting a hefty cost.

“From a financial stand-
point, it’s a significant loss,”
Chief Operating Officer Steve
Rosenberg said.

After an insurance estimate,
repairs to the building can be
made in earnest. Because of the
dirty water from the Schuylkill,
the Jewish Federation will have
to demolish and replace the
basement’s drywall, replace
the auditorium’s 250 seats and
set up blowers to dry out the
carpet, which will have to be
replaced eventually.

Most employees will likely
not be back in the building
until October at the earliest,
Rosenberg said.

“We won’t let anybody back
in the building unless it’s 100%
safe,” Rosenberg said. “Safety is
always our first priority.”
The fate of the sports hall
remains to be determined.

“It appears that the cabinetry
has all been damaged. The walls
are totally destroyed because
all the Sheetrock has to come
down to make sure there’s no
mold,” hall Chairperson Stephen
Frishberg said.

The day after the storm,
the cabinets storing the hall’s
memorabilia were almost
completely submerged.

Chambers said he saw a basket-
ball floating on the brackish
water. Sports jerseys and gym
bags had slid out of their display
cases. Like the rest of the basement,
there’s no number yet for the
cost of repairs for the hall,
though Frishberg estimated in
the neighborhood of $25,000.

But insurance will not cover
that cost, as flood insurance
doesn’t include below-grade, or
below-street level, damages.

Luckily, Frishberg doesn’t
think he will have to replace the
JEWISH EXPONENT
The auditorium in the basement will need 250 new chairs installed.

Photo by Steve Rosenberg
hall’s memorabilia, which can be
cleaned and restored, with the
exception of a few paper slips.

The question of where the
restored memorabilia will be
housed is unclear.

2100 Arch St. was only
supposed to be a temporary
home for the sports hall, which
was in the Gershman Y before
that space was taken over by
the University of the Arts,
Rosenberg said. He hopes this
gives the hall an opportunity
to find a home to attract more
traffic. He said the hall is the
area’s “best-kept secret.”
Frishberg is trying to find a
silver lining.

“I’m very optimistic that we’ll
rebuild it even more beautiful
than what it was,” he said.

The Philadelphia Jewish
Sports Hall of Fame has set up
a GoFundMe to assist in the cost
of restoration: gofundme.com/f/
help-rebuild-our-museum. l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
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SEPTEMBER 16, 2021
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