Local News

Sewers Blamed For Floods In Pittsburgh Suburbs

June 30, 2014 / 9:10 AM EDT / CBS Pittsburgh

CARNEGIE (KDKA/AP) - Some Pittsburgh suburbs hit by flash floods during a brief but intense weekend thunderstorm are blaming overloaded sewers for the mess.

Carnegie Mayor Jack Kobistek says it could take weeks to fix the borough's sewers, many of which backed up into homes when they were also flooded with storm drainage Saturday evening.

The worst damage was in Carnegie and Scott Township, neighboring municipalities just southwest of the city.

There were widespread reports of basement flooding, though some streets also flooded when storm drains couldn't handle about 2 inches of rain that fell in a short period of time.

About a dozen homes were affected in Carnegie, including John Milliners.

"We tried to grab what we could, and it was just coming in too fast and we couldn't get everything out," Milliner said. "We lost a lot of toys, pictures, memories like that, my wife's wedding dress."

Carnegie Borough manager Steve Beuter said, "with the two inches of rain, some of the sewers did have problems accepting it.

Beuter said they will see if upgrades are needed in the affected areas.

Some 20-homes and businesses were affected in Scott Township.

Township manager Denise Fitzgerald said, "a lot of our homes that were affected last year in July, got affected again by this storm.

Scott Township says they just don't have the money to make the necessary upgrades to the sewers.

The flooding was the worst in those areas since September 2004, when rains from remnants of Hurricane Ivan flooded much of southwestern Pennsylvania.

Flooding