Area man describes snowstorm ordeal
A spry 90-year-old man from West Virginia and Pittsburgh is back to his regular schedule at his former South Hills restaurant after being rescued from his vehicle during last Sunday’s snowstorm that paralyzed the region. Although blowing and drifting snow halted Harold Wiegel’s journey from Pittsburgh to West Virginia, his daughter Judy Beam said he was going about his business as if nothing had happened a couple of days after the episode.
“Dad is an amazing man,” said Beam, of Finleyville. “Getting stranded in the snowstorm didn’t faze him. He was back to his regular routine of running errands and lending a hand with dishes at the restaurant a couple of days after he was rescued.”
According to John Lingo, volunteer disaster coordinator for the American Red Cross in Uniontown, once Wiegel was taken to the Holiday Inn in Uniontown, he realized that medication he needed was still inside his car.
Lingo said two young men, Chris and Jason Alexander of Smithfield, rode down in their all-terrain vehicles to recover the medication for Wiegel.
Lingo commended the young men for helping.
“It’s just amazing that these guys would go through that snow to get that man’s medication. Through the cold and wind, they got to his car, and we were able to run the prescription up to him,” Lingo said.
Wiegel opened the Pleasant Bar and Restaurant in the South Hills in 1938 after having served as a butcher and owning a grocery store and meat market in the same area of Pittsburgh.
“He started the first catering business in the South Hills area, and then he opened the bar and restaurant,” said Beam. “Dad worked until he was 88, only retiring three years ago, but he is still on the go.”
Beam said Wiegel, a former volunteer fireman, Coast Guard veteran and former magistrate, spends most of his time between Pittsburgh and West Virginia.
“He’s always liked hunting and fishing, so he bought a place on Tiger Lake in Grafton, W.Va.,” said Beam. “But he had trouble getting to the lake in the winter, so he bought the place in Thorton.”
Beam said Wiegel wanted his wife to move to West Virginia, but she didn’t want to, because Pittsburgh is her home and her friends and her bridge club are there.
“So dad travels back and forth weekly to West Virginia,” said Beam. “That’s how he got stuck in the snow. He was going to Thorton.
“Dad’s a pillar of strength,” Beam added. “We’re just happy that someone was there to help him out when he got stranded.”