close

Region recovering from Thursday night rain and flooding issues

By Mark Hofmann mhofmann@heraldstandard.Com 5 min read
1 / 3

Submitted photo

The Bullskin Township Volunteer Fire Company station and social hall were flooded Thursday night following heavy rains earlier in the evening.

2 / 3

The Aquatorium in Monongahela is nearly submerged by the high-flowing Monongahela River Friday.

3 / 3

Mud and trees temporarily blocked Bunola River Road in Forward Township late Friday morning.

Flooded basements, flooded roadways and closed roads were the major issues following Thursday night’s rainfall in the region.

Jim Bittner of Fayette County Emergency Management Agency said the areas hit hardest by the storm were North Union Township and Uniontown, particularly parts of Gallatin Avenue, Reppert Boulevard and Connellsville Street.

There was also flooding in the Dutch Bottom area of Connellsville, which cause an evacuation, according to Connellsville Mayor Greg Lincoln.

The Youghiogheny River was at flood stage Friday afternoon, reaching 12 feet. Lincoln said they were bracing for the river to rise another 2 feet with additional rain Friday afternoon.

In a Facebook post shortly before 3 p.m. Friday, Lincoln said there’s an evacuation of the area around the Yough River Park with firemen going door to door.

“Please avoid this area,” Lincoln warned, adding the Youghiogheny River was projected to crest by 14 feet by Friday evening.

Lincoln posted that the Connellsville Senior Center will be ready to help any resident in need of assistance, and any donated food and drinks to first responders can be dropped off at the New Haven Hose Co. VFD station along 7th Street.

“We’re going to have a long day of basements being pumped out,” he said. “But clearly Uniontown got the worst of everything. I feel for them.”

Connellsville offered volunteer crews and equipment to help Uniontown residents.

“When we went through our flood in 2016, everyone came running, and we want to return the favor,” he said. “I’m telling you, we went through it and it’s not easy. We’ll be ready to spring into action to help.”

Bittner said the storm also caused roadway flooding in Bullsking Township.

The storm caused major flooding in the Bullskin Township Volunteer Fire Company station and social hall, Chief Kyle Quinn said, adding that Route 119 northbound and southbound remained closed between Buttermore Boulevard and Pleasant Valley Road as of 10:35 p.m.

Bonnie Slezak, president of the fire department’s ladies auxiliary, said this recent damage happened shortly after renovations were made to the fire hall from flood damage in 2016.

She said they were busy with cleanup efforts Friday afternoon, and did not yet have an assessment of the damage.

Volunteers were setting up for the first night of their annual Lenten Fish Fry when water and mud began pouring into the fire hall.

“It’s just been a shock, I’d say,” she said.

The fish fry was cancelled Friday with hopes of returning the following week.

“We were busy,” said a supervisor with Westmoreland County 911, who wished not to be named.

The supervisor said the center received numerous flooding calls that lead to a few roads being closed and a couple of water rescues, although the supervisor didn’t have the information on where those incidents occurred.

While the supervisor said the flooding was widespread all over the county, the area hit the hardest was Ligonier Township because of water coming down from the mountains.

“It seems like it’s receding now that it hasn’t rained in an hour,” the supervisor said. “Hopefully, it’s going to be cleared up.”

Jeff Rhodes, a 911 Coordinator with Greene County, said a rough estimate with the number of roads closed or restricted due to flooding in Greene County was around six and at least one call came in of a tree down.

“That doesn’t mean they’re not out there,” Rhodes said of unreported fallen trees. “Nothing too much was called in.”

Rhodes said no particular area was hit harder than any other as they didn’t receive a large number of flood-related calls on Thursday night, but saw an increase of flooding calls on Friday morning.

“Right now, we’re dealing with a lot of basement flooding,” said Washington County 911 Supervisor Mike O’Neil.

O’Neil said the Thursday-evening rains brought widespread flooding incidents in the county where normal flooding occurs and where flooding normally doesn’t happen.

O’Neil said they received some calls concerning mudslides with one along Route 88 in West Brownsville and another along Route 837 in Union Township that blocked part of the roadway until PennDOT cleared the area.

He added that PennDOT closed or restricted around 15 state-maintained roads and adding once the non-state roads are factored in, they had nearly 20 to 25 road closings or restrictions in the county.

“We had few reports of trees down–a couple of trees fell over, but nothing major,” O’Neil said.

O’Neil added there were a few overnight rescues in the county with people stuck in their vehicles.

“They drove in flood waters when they shouldn’t have,” O’Neil said. “They were stranded for a bit.”

The National Weather Service had issued a flood warning for six counties in the tri-state area including Fayette, Greene, Washington and Westmoreland counties .

The service also warns motorists to avoid driving their vehicles through flooded areas, adding that most flood fatalities occur in vehicles.

Herald-Standard staff writers Alyssa Choiniere and Mike Tony contributed to this article.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $4.79/week.

Subscribe Today