Clean up continues after flooding ruins multiple apartments in Wilkinsburg

WILKINSBURG, Pa. (KDKA) — Frustration is rising over a flood in Wilkinsburg on Wednesday.

Residents told KDKA they feel like they've received zero help from the borough and the water company, and they want answers.

All people living in West Gate condominiums are still unhoused as of Wednesday because their utilities are still shut off.

The Red Cross has given them some small monetary assistance to cover their hotel stay for a couple of days.

And at this point, the people who suffered the most from the flooding told KDKA they are on an all-out search for resources.

"It's still wet. Stuff still got water dripping from the," said displaced resident Ray Pope.

Pope was back at his condo on Wednesday, fishing through his mud-and-debris-covered belongings for anything he could salvage.

"It's depressing. Everything in here was totally brand-new."

His ground-level unit was wrecked by a water main break Tuesday morning.

Pope, up to his chest in flood water, tried to move as much as he could out of the way of the water, but pretty much everything, including his entire home music studio, was swamped.

Pope told KDKA he is, however, happy to be alive after being trapped because his front door was jammed.

Pope and others who live here are still upset over the fact that neither the fire truck that was sent to the scene nor the water authority had the pumps to remove the water from the condos, delaying the process of the utilities being turned back on for the still-unhoused people who live upstairs.

"Whoever is in charge, I'm not sure, I'm new to the area, but whoever is in charge, I feel like someone needs to lose their job," said resident Noah Cathcart.

"If this happened and I was in charge, I would feel so bad that I would -- you'd want to offer people to stay in your own home if you had a heart."  

Around 10:15 a.m. On Wednesday morning, Borough Manager John Antinori and his team arrived to assess the damage.

"Damage is significant to the ground floor apartments. We were able to go inside, code enforcement is here with me. And we were able to go inside to two of the apartments, go inside one of the apartments and look inside another one, met with one of the residents and it is extensive damage and the impact to those folks is significant," Antinori said. 

Antinori said that the borough will be working with the water authority to help these people who have lost everything.

"We're working with them very closely to see how we can improve that going forward. Unfortunately, it had to come in the wake of a crisis," Wilkinsburg Council President Denise Edwards said.

Edwards told KDKA borough leaders are considering purchasing pumps of their own should a situation like this arise again.

She added that the borough has two caseworkers who might be able to help assist the residents who were impacted by the flood.