Flooding hits Uniontown, surrounding areas hard, with more rain likely to come
Heavy rainfall Tuesday afternoon resulted in flooding throughout the area, significantly impacting parts of Uniontown and surrounding municipalities.
Flooding resulted in several vehicles being stranded and subsequent evacuations near CVS along Pittsburgh Road in Uniontown, Tuesday afternoon, as well as flooding along Morgantown Street near Ben Franklin School, Fayette County Emergency Management Agency Public Information Officer Susan Kozak-Griffith said.
“Drains can’t keep up with that amount of water,” Kozak-Griffith said.
The rainfall saturated the ground enough to down several trees in the area, Kozak-Griffith added, including four in a two-hour period in German Township and several more in Uniontown.
South Union Township got hit hard by the downpour as well, according to Kozak-Griffith.
The Uniontown Fire Department reported receiving approximately 15 weather-related calls Tuesday afternoon, noting that Pittsburgh Road, North Beeson Boulevard, Route 40, Route 21 and Derrick Avenue were affected.
The flooding resulted in no injuries to residents or fire personnel in the city, according to the department.
The bulk of emergency calls and corresponding damage came between 3:00 p.m. and approximately 4:10 p.m., Kozak-Griffith indicated, noting that a two-vehicle crash on Morgantown Road in Georges Township resulting in one fatality and a building collapse on South Mount Vernon Avenue Extension in South Union Township resulting in four people trapped and two taken to Uniontown Hospital both occurred within approximately 15 minutes of each other around 3:30 p.m.
Connellsville Mayor Greg Lincoln said that the city’s storm drains backed up Tuesday amid the downpour, causing ponding on some roads and flooding on Route 119. But the rain subsequently slowed, which Lincoln noted gave the storm drains time to empty out.
Lee Hendricks, meteorologist for National Weather Service Pittsburgh, said Wednesday afternoon that Connellsville had gotten 1.66 inches of rain in the past 24 hours, with Grays Landing amassing 1.49, Charleroi collecting 0.92 and Point Marion accumulating 0.89.
And more rain is likely coming.
Hendricks noted that a flash flood watch which began Wednesday at noon is slated to last until Friday morning for areas including Fayette and Westmoreland counties, with a 70 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms Thursday and Thursday night for the area.
Higher elevations in Fayette and Westmoreland counties could get between three quarters of an inch to 2 inches of rain over the next 48 hours, Hendricks said Wednesday.
Hendricks noted that winds coming from the southwest were injecting unstable air into the region, yielding a higher chance of rain with storms amid greater humidity.
“That’s the problem this time of year,” Hendricks said. “Unfortunately, you get it in a time frame that’s just not anything the environment can handle all at once.”
Staff reporter Rachel Basinger contributed to this story.