Heavy Rain, Wind Cause Flooding And Other Issues
SHALER TOWNSHIP (KDKA/AP) -- Police officers and firefighters were called to a road in Shaler Township early Wednesday morning for some severe flooding.
Little Pine Creek was overflowing along the 2500- and 2600-blocks of Autumnwood Drive around 12:15 a.m. The flooding caused damage to at least 15 homes along the street.
Ten of those homes had a few inches of water in the basement and garage areas.
To add to the flooding concerns, several trees were uprooted and fell into the creek.
"All of the sudden, I heard a loud crack go off," said homeowner Jeff Kosky. "I looked over in the neighbor's backyard and I saw a 20-foot tree topple over. About three seconds later, I heard another snap. The water went from ankle-level deep to about mid-shin deep in about 30 seconds."
The fallen trees caused the creek to overflow even more into people's backyards. But most of the flooding inside the homes was blamed on backed up sewage lines.
John Petrancosta spent his afternoon washing away the dirt and debris brought in from the overnight flooding. He's lived on on Autumnwood Drive for almost 45 years.
"I'm 73 and past point in life where I wanna deal with this," he said.
Fortunately, the inside of his house wasn't damaged.
"I just have the damage I have here, the rocks and part of the wall gave way," Petrancosta said. "I think it got hit by the tree."
Diann Ranallo lives next door. Her laundry room was flooded by four inches of water, which has now receded. Now, she's cleaning up.
"In Ivan 2004, I had four feet, so four inches isn't so bad," she said.
There were no injuries reported and no evacuations were needed.
Firefighters did go door-to-door asking how many people were inside each home and if they needed a place to stay.
Once the rains stopped, the water started to recede.
Thousands of people, many in Allegheny and Beaver counties, were without power Wednesday morning after the heavy rains toppled trees and caused flash flooding across southwestern Pennsylvania.
More than 7,000 customers lost power at the height of Tuesday night's storm, which delayed the Pittsburgh Pirates game more than 90 minutes.
Duquesne Light expected to restore power to its customers by late Wednesday afternoon.
A record amount of rain was recorded Tuesday at the Pittsburgh Airport, with a total of 1.44 inches. The previous record was 1.38 inches.
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