Route 28 reopens, flood watch remains
Route 28 in Pittsburgh reopened early Thursday morning after it was closed due to flooding, according to Allegheny County 911.
Most of Western Pennsylvania remains under a flash flood watch until 11 p.m. Thursday, according to the National Weather Service. Much of Beaver County is under a flood warning. Showers and thunderstorms are expected to continue Thursday, with up to an inch of new rain possible. Friday will likely provide a reprieve from the rain, which will return Saturday.
ROAD CLOSURES
Tribune-Review news partner WPXI reported two people were rescued from their vehicle on Route 28 near the 40th Street Bridge.
#BreakingNews: 2 people reportedly rescued from a car stuck in flood waters on Route 28. A viewer sent us this photo from Troy Hill. https://t.co/Vmeam2wpeg pic.twitter.com/FRjSauiNCe
— WPXI (@WPXI) May 29, 2019
Route 28 totally shut down at 40th Street Bridge #Pittsburgh #Route28 pic.twitter.com/t4Z4UZh1Er
— Hols (@Hols67710809) May 29, 2019
Update: In ~45 minutes, traffic crawling along southbound #Route28 has advanced about a mile, maybe 2. pic.twitter.com/WMTI9c8tbc
— Natasha Lindstrom (@NewsNatasha) May 30, 2019
Rt28 inbound about an hour ago pic.twitter.com/FJUSBTIHT2
— Dave Calfo (@DaveCalfo) May 29, 2019
Wow that escalated quick on #rt28 @KDKA @WTAE @WPXI pic.twitter.com/wJ4cj12G6R
— Robby (@Rbell412) May 29, 2019
The southbound lanes remained closed past midnight.
Freeport Road was closed in Springdale Township between Riddle Run and the New Kensington Bridge because of several downed trees. It remained closed as of 5 a.m. Thursday.
Springdale Township: Freeport Rd closed between Riddle Run and the New Kensington Bridge due to several trees down.
— Allegheny County (@Allegheny_Co) May 30, 2019
The following state routes in 2018 were closed as of 7 a.m. Thursday, according to PennDOT.
- Route 1031 (Lardintown Road) from Route 908 to Butler County in Fawn Township closed due to floodin
- Route 1034 (Bull Creek Road) from Ridge Road to Howes Run Road in Fawn Township closed due to flooding
- Southbound Route 19 lane restriction near Cumberland Road in McCandless Township due to a clogged inlet
- Route 8 lane restriction from Craighead Road to Mt. Royal Boulevard in Hampton Township due to a clogged inlet
- Route 2017 (Douglas Run Road) in Elizabeth Township closed due to downed tree and live wires
Freeport Bridge and Route 356 in Allegheny Township opened around midnight after being closed due to downed trees and electric wires, according to Allegheny Township Police.
• • •
WESTMORELAND
Westmoreland County Public Safety Director Bud Mertz couldn’t pinpoint one, or even multiple hot spots during the heavy thunderstorms that rolled through on Wednesday.
“It’s been countywide,” Mertz said Wednesday. “I don’t think there’s been an area that’s not affected.”
From downed trees and power lines to residential and commercial flooding, Mertz said additional personnel were staffing the county’s 911 call center “to make sure the calls get answered and processed.”
Emergency responders in Delmont were dealing with multiple weather-related situations.
Fire Chief Rich Balik said crews dealt with two downed trees, one across Abbe Place near the borough’s volunteer fire department, and a second tree on Route 66 near Fletcher’s Outdoor Power Equipment.
Balik also said his department received a call about flooding along Old William Penn Highway near the Valley Stream Apartment complex.
West Penn Power’s outage map listed about almost 300 customers without power as of 9 p.m. in Westmoreland County Thursday morning, down from almost 2,000 Wednesday night.
County emergency dispatchers reported a female motorist in Ligonier Township had driven into a flooded roadway at 5:30 p.m. and was stranded on the roof of her vehicle. She found safe at a nearby home, according to reports.
“I’ve been listening to calls come in from Penn Township and North Huntingdon as well as those northern areas, all the way to New Kensington,” Mertz said. “It’s just a matter of getting the calls prioritized and getting the priority calls dispatched first.”
Local first responders were doing an excellent job, Mertz said.
“Most everything I’ve been made aware of is being handled at a local level,” he said. “To this point, I don’t know of any severe or critical infrastructure damage, or any incidents where people have been taken out of their homes.”
“It’s a strong storm, but the locals have been out there running from call to call and doing a good job,” Mertz said.
The flooding in the Ligonier area continued Wednesday night, as a car was reported stalled in a flooded section of Peoples Road in Ligonier Township, prompting rescuers to get the motorist from the vehicle at about 8:30 p.m.
• • •
ALLE-KISKI VALLEY
In the Alle-Kiski Valley, areas along Bull Creek Road in Fawn were among the hardest hit.
Firefighters worked to rescue at least four people Tuesday night, then worked into the afternoon Wednesday to pump water out of basements before another round of storms came.
“I’ve never seen it come up so quick,” Fawn No. 1 Fire Chief Dan Selfridge said of Bull Creek, adding that his department’s recreation hall had about 2 feet of water in it as of 8 p.m. Tuesday. Selfridge said Eureka Fire and Rescue, Tarentum and Blawnox firefighters made the water rescues. Those rescued from their homes included a woman Selfridge described as a “shut-in” who was ill and another person with two children and multiple dogs, according to Selfridge.
The fire chief was bracing for more rain, which began hammering the Valley around mid-afternoon.
Before the second round of rain came, James Schilling worked to clean up his property near Iron Bridge Lane, which was partly under water. The electrical engineer planned to drive his pregnant wife and 3-year-old daughter to stay somewhere else temporarily.
“I have to get them out,” Schilling said. “By the time people decided to get out last night, it was too late to even walk out.”
Neighbor Tim Choltco’s family has lived along Bull Creek Road for 50 years. On Wednesday, Bull Creek pushed its way across the road into his yard.
“It crested here,” he said, pointing to a tree in his backyard. Choltco said the flooding was the worst he recalled since after Hurricane Ivan in 2004, when flooding wiped out all but three of the 800 orchids in his basement. No orchids had been damaged as of Wednesday afternoon.
Down the road, Kristen and Dave Eddy were removing water-logged carpets from their house. “This is our second flood. Ivan sent 3½ feet of water. This one put 3 to 8 inches in the house so far,” Kristen Eddy said.“It’s not time to be upset. You spend a lot of energy and you still have to clean,” she added.
Dave Eddy said he spent most of Tuesday night watching flooding approach the family’s garage where he has three vintage vehicles.
“Dad and I rebuilt the 1946 purple Chevrolet pick-up in the early ‘80s. My 17-year-old son and I are rebuilding a 1964 Plymouth Valiant. And waiting to be painted is a 1948 Plymouth,” he said. He didn’t know what to do to protect the vehicles. Only the pickup runs, but he said, “We’ve been lucky so far.”
• • •
INDIANA
An EF0 tornado touched down in eastern Indiana County around Penn Run at 3:45 p.m. Tuesday, said Bill Modzelewski, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Moon Township.
That classification means winds remained under 65 mph, Modzelewski said.
Two additional confirmed tornadoes were confirmed in the county on Saturday night. Nobody was hurt.
That makes 19 total tornadoes in Pennsylvania in 2019. That’s already more than the state’s yearly average, according to the Associated Press.
Westmoreland County got hit with five tornadoes last year. The last time one hit in Allegheny County was November 2017, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The county was hit with a severe storm carrying high winds on Wednesday, but it was not a tornado, Modzelewski said.
Patrick Varine is a TribLive reporter covering Delmont, Export and Murrysville. He is a Western Pennsylvania native and joined the Trib in 2010 after working as a reporter and editor with the former Dover Post Co. in Delaware. He can be reached at pvarine@triblive.com.
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