Flood damage assessed
Fayette County 911 Coordinator Guy Napolillo spent the bulk of the day Thursday surveying the county to find out how ravaged the county was by heavy rain the day before. Along with a representative from the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA), Napolillo said he visited areas all across the county. Most of the complaints across the county dealt with homeowners who had flooded basements, Napolillo said.
The assessment is to determine if Fayette County is eligible for state aid under the declared state of emergency. Eligibility is decided when at least 25 homes have sustained major damage, meaning they are uninhabitable due to damage.
Napolillo said he hoped to finish the assessment Thursday.
Commission Chairman Vincent A. Vicites said he signed the declaration that made the county a state of emergency around 2 p.m. Wednesday. Vicites said the county did so “to help support what municipalities do on a local level.”
Before the county as a whole made the declaration, Uniontown, Dunbar Township and Connellsville made separate declarations, said Susan Kozak-Griffith, public relations officer for 911.
Vicites said after Napolillo finishes surveying damage around the county, a report would be submitted to PEMA to determine funding eligibility.
The rain damaged no county buildings, said Vicites, but officials at the county lock-up did take precautions when it looked as though the annex to the prison might get water.
Fayette County Prison Warden Larry Medlock said that about 20 inmates were moved from the prison’s annex Wednesday afternoon as debris in nearby water started flooding over. Medlock said prison officials were concerned that the debris would dam up and flow into the annex.
Ultimately, those inmates were housed in the main prison building between 1 and 8 p.m., and were moved back without any water problems.
Medlock said it would not have been a problem if the prison needed to house the 20 annex inmates in the main building because the population in the oft-overcrowded prison was down.
During the morning hours on Wednesday, Fayette County 911 logged 200 weather-related calls, said Kozak-Griffith, and the center is still getting calls for help.
“We have 42 municipalities. There was not one that was not hit,” Kozak-Griffith said.
The bulk of the calls came in between 8 a.m. and noon, before various communities and then the county, declared a state of emergency that sent workers home and kept many people inside.
Kozak-Griffith said calls were still coming into the center for help in areas like Springhill Township and Fayette City.
“It’s hitting from one point of the county to another,” she said.
Thursday morning, Kozak-Griffith said that some secondary roads throughout the county were still flooded and impassable, but no major roadways were closed. She also noted that there were no areas that ordered residents to evacuate Thursday because of the high waters.
According to National Weather Service meteorologist Terry Parrish, rainfall totals ranged from over 2 inches in Fairchance to nearly 3 and one-half inches in the Jumonville area.
Minor flooding was reported along the Youghiogheny and Monongahela rivers Thursday. The worst damage was at Charleroi where the Monongahela River crested at 34.5 feet, about 2 feet below the crest. Other minor flooding was reported down the river in Belle Vernon and Fayette City.
The Youghiogheny River crested at 12.5 feet in Connellsville, about half a foot above the flood stage there.
Parrish said the weather will get better this weekend with temperatures soaring in the 60s by Saturday. No rain is in the forecast.