South Hills Flash Flooding Snarls Rush Hour Traffic
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SOUTH HILLS (KDKA) - The heavy rain and flash flooding Thursday evening hit parts of the area at one of the worst possible times, slowing the evening rush hour traffic down to a crawl in some places because of closed roads, most notably in the South Hills.
The National Weather Service issued a Flash Flood Warning. Banksville Road at Potomac Avenue once again was closed temporarily because of knee-deep water covering the heavily traveled roadway.
Rachel Murphy works at a dry cleaning store on Banksville Road.
"It's crazy, I called 911 as soon as we saw what was happening because I knew (Banksville Road) was going to flood again and I didn't want it to be catastrophic. I didn't know what they could do, but I wanted them to come down," Murphy said.
Another flood-prone neighborhood with high water was Route 50, Washington Avenue, in Scott Township, near the Carnegie line.
Besides traffic being detoured, businesses and homeowners in the area say they've had their fill of flood-related woes.
Randy Carter, who works at Big Shot Bob's Sandwich Shop, said, "Every time it rains, this road, (Washington Avenue) gets flooded, and they shut the road down and no one can get in and out, and they tell people to stop. I know it's frustrating to a lot of people."
Melanie Zavodnik owns a home at the corner of Washington Road and Boden Avenue. She said that she and her husband have lived here for about a year and a half. She thinks part of the problem is that when it rains, the sewer system backs up and gets overwhelmed.
"We are beyond frustrated. We have been flooded, starting last year. We moved here in last April, we were flooded in July, we lost a lot of stuff, our basement was flooded. We were flooded in December, January, February, March, every month we were flooded," Zavodnik said.
She blamed the repeated flood-related problems on Washington Road on PennDOT.
Meanwhile, 1,200 Brentwood Borough students won't have class on Friday due to flooding affecting several buildings.
