Much of state under flood watch
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Pennsylvania braced for more flooding during the second day of a slow-moving storm that cut power to about 250,000 households in the state and toppled the country’s fourth-tallest railroad bridge. Just as communities began clearing downed trees and power lines Tuesday, the National Weather Service issued flood watches and flood warnings in the state until late Tuesday and early Wednesday.
There were no reports of fatalities in Pennsylvania, but emergency management officials reported many close calls from Monday’s mix of flash floods and strong winds, including people being trapped in their homes.
Storm damage was enough for Crawford, McKean, Potter and Warren counties to declare county emergencies, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Maria Smith said.
In Venango County, the municipality of Franklin received 5.6 inches of rain between Monday and Tuesday morning, Reed said. Just a half-inch of rain in a short period of time could produce flooding, he said.
“It wouldn’t take much for streams to run out of the banks,” Reed said.
Meanwhile, National Weather Service officials spent Tuesday trying to confirm reports of several tornadoes.
One team from the Pittsburgh office began investigating reports of wind damage in Venango and Mercer counties. Winds reached up to 80 mph.
About 75 percent of Venango County’s 58,000 residents remained without power Tuesday, mostly in Oil City and southern communities, said the county’s emergency services coordinator, Dick Graff.
Hundreds of volunteer workers spent Tuesday helping residents pump water out of homes and businesses where 4 inches of rain fell, Graff said.
Several people in the Cochranton area of Crawford County had to be rescued from their homes after a day of constant rain overflowed a gully, said Stephen Watt, the county’s director of emergency services.
The county’s main tributary, French Creek, got within 2 feet of flood stage early Tuesday and people were wading in 2 to 3 feet of water in the streets of Titusville, Watt said.
“We’re under flood warning until 4 p.m. There’s prediction of 1 inch of rain per hour so we’re hoping it doesn’t happen because we’re already saturated,” Watt said.
PEMA officers were assessing damage of structures and roads, Smith said. She said it’s unclear how many people were still without power Tuesday afternoon, but that 250,000 customers lost power at some point since the storms arrived Monday.
On Monday, heavy winds from the storms were being blamed for the collapse of the 121-year-old Kinzua Viaduct near the Allegheny National Forest, about 110 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.
State officials closed the bridge last summer, fearing strong wind could cause the bridge to collapse.
Besides the Kinzua collapse, about a half-dozen state parks across the northern tier sustained severe damage including downed trees and power outages, said Terry Brady, a spokesman for the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.