Widespread flooding in Westmoreland: homes flooded, roads closed

Widespread flooding Wednesday throughout Westmoreland County closed roads, flooded basements, required the rescue of some people and stranded others.

Drenching rain the past three days that totaled 3 to 5 inches across the region pushed streams and rivers over their banks.

Among the hardest-hit areas were the villages of Lowber, along Sewickley Creek, and Gratztown along the Youghiogheny River and its 168-square-mile watershed.

Lowber firefighters had to rescue an elderly woman from her home in Gratztown, Lowber fire Chief John Van Dyke said.

Van Dyke said the area started getting hit about 6 a.m.

“It was bad down here. It came up fast this morning,” Van Dyke said.

While Sewickley Creek sometimes floods when the Youghiogheny River floods, “it (Sewickley Creek) came up before the Yough did,” Van Dyke said.

Latrobe flooding

Firefighters in Latrobe used a rescue boat Wednesday afternoon to evacuate five people and four dogs from a Latrobe home bordering Loyalhanna Creek.

Water overflowing the creek was about waist deep shortly after 1 p.m. when emergency responders arrived at the modular home in the 200 block of Avenue A, fire Chief John Brasile said.

“It was up to the top step on their porch,” Brasile said. “The priority was an elderly gentleman who was handicapped.”

Firefighters were able to move the residents’ truck to higher ground, Brasile said. He said the family is being helped by relatives.

By mid-afternoon, Latrobe firefighters had answered about eight other weather-related calls, mostly for basement flooding.

“That’s a low number with all the rain we’ve gotten,” Brasile said.

Sutersville fire Chief Mark Ghion said they received numerous calls about flooded basements, particularly from homeowners living close to the Youghiogheny River.

He said they tried to help elderly people move their belongings out of the path of the waters and monitor the area for flooding.

Pumping out basements in the middle of the flood poses problems.

“We can’t compete. We’re trying to pump it out, and the river’s pumping it in,” Ghion said.

Sewickley Creek damage

The Sewickley Creek flooded the rear portion of Deb Aaron’s home on Lowber Road Wednesday morning.

Aaron not only has the creek at her side, but water flowing from the adjacent abandoned mine drainage treatment ponds added to the swift waters rushing toward the Yough.

“We got everything out we could” before the water got up to the third basement step, said Matt Aaron, who was in the basement in the morning in about an inch of water.

“It’s not been this bad since 2018,” Matt Aaron said, a familiar refrain among residents in Lowber who had water in their basements. He was hoping it wouldn’t get as bad as 2018, when the basement was covered in 6 feet of water.

The flood waters toppled the refrigerator in the basement of David Shotts’ Lowber Road home in what is the worst flooding he has experiences in the five years he’s lived there.

Residents along Lowber Road were sharing the latest reports about the condition of the river — when it would crest and at what level.

Joe Gracan was going through the second bad flood since he’s lived there.

“I’m getting too old for this stuff,” said Gracan, who had two pumps going to get the water out of the basement faster than it was seeping through the basement door.

Paul Hermann, who has lived in his Lowber Road home for 35 years, said he got a call at 5 a.m. that the neighborhood, less than a mile from the Youghiogheny River, was instead being flooded by the creek.

“This one came up pretty fast,” Hermann said, noting the 2018 flood put 2 feet of water over Lowber Road.

The Pittsburgh region was drenched the past several days, receiving 4.26 inches of rain from Sunday through Tuesday, setting a record for three days of rainfall in April, said Jared Rackley, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

The good news for those who experienced flooding is the weather service is forecasting less rainfall in the next few days, said Alicia Miller, weather service hydrologist.

Additional rainfall isn’t expected to be more than an inch.

Despite the water in the basement and the clean-up in the days ahead, Hermann has no plans to move.

“This is a nice neighborhood … in the summer.”