Washington County hit by flooding
The storms that moved through the area late Wednesday and early Thursday did not leave Washington County residents untouched. The storms flooded roads in the Centerville and Fredericktown areas, while West Brownsville residents living on hillsides not normally affected by flooding had water in their basements.
Pauline Sabo of West Brownsville said the flooding took her by surprise, since she’s never had such problems at her house before.
“We’ve got water in our cellar and we live up on the hill. It’s coming, I guess, from the ground. We just got too much rain,” she said.
In Centerville, mudslides affected several state roads, and a borough road was washed out. According to borough officials, Willock Road was reduced to an asphalt path about 4 feet wide, with a 30-foot drop where the rest of the road used to be.
Clogged drains further aggravated road flooding, according to Jeff Breen, the Washington County maintenance manager for the state Department of Transportation.
Route 88 near Vestaburg, between Fredericktown and West Brownsville, was closed from 2 to 8 a.m. Additionally, a drainpipe on Barney’s Run Road in Centerville was jammed with debris, causing the road to flood. Breen said equipment was brought in to dig out the gravel, silt and wood.
“It was just from the little streams overflowing and having no place to go because the inlets were covered by debris,” Breen said. “The drains were actually open last night before the storm.”
Breen was concerned that additional rain predicted for Thursday night could cause more debris to enter the drains and cause more flooding Friday.
He said all of the damage from Thursday’s flooding in Washington County was cleared by 1:30 Thursday afternoon, except for a portion of Buckingham Road in Deemston Borough. An area about 30 feet long and half a lane wide washed out on that road, though it remained open to traffic.