Oakdale businesses cleaning up and looking for answers after flooding
By: KDKA-TV's Ricky Sayer
OAKDALE, Pa. (KDKA) — People in Oakdale are cleaning up after the borough flooded Thursday night into Friday morning.
The water didn't recede for several hours, and everything was covered in mud when it finally did. The streets are back open, but the damage is done, including at Mark Snatchko's car detail shop.
When everything gets cleaned up, he needs his tire changers to work. After getting 38 inches of water in his shop, he said it would cost $60,000 to replace the three machines.
"If they fail, I'd have to shut the businesses down," the owner of Our Cars Auto Detailing said. "At my age and the cost of it, I can't afford to replace it."
The Oakdale Inn only had a few inches of water inside, and Dwain Schorr has been helping the owner get their floor and furniture back to what it looked like before the flooding.
But for other people like Joe Tarabe, there is a lot of work left.
"It's sickening," he said.
On Friday, his team worked on one of the three buildings in Oakdale he owns.
"This is just getting old down in this town," he said. "We've been having this problem for a long time, man. Most businesses can't take this and homeowners are the same way."
Snatchko's son, Jim, is the fire chief. He said they have a plan to keep the next flood from being this bad, but they cannot execute it.
"The big thing is bureaucratic red tape with the DEP," Jim said. "They are very difficult to work with. They won't let us put machines in the creek to dredge it out. We've begged the Army Corp of Engineers to come down here and help up, and we get absolutely nowhere."
He says the construction boom in neighboring towns has only worsened the problem. Now, he's grappling with the real possibility that his father has to leave.
"That's the hard part right now, to be honest with ya," Mark said. "I'm really choking up. When I walked in here this morning, I just started crying."
People in Oakdale said they are grateful for the support they have received.
