10 years ago, Hurricane Ivan brought record rain to region

On this day 10 years ago, the Mon-Yough area joined others in cleanup activities when the remnants of Hurricane Ivan dumped 5.9 inches of rain on the Pittsburgh region.

Allegheny County officials said it was a one-day record, breaking the previous record of 3.6 inches set nine days earlier when the remnants of Hurricane Frances visited the region.

“The ground has been so saturated from the other rain,” McKeesport's then-emergency management coordinator Edwin Coulter said. “It just couldn't take it.”

James Brewster, then the mayor, told council on Oct. 6, 2004, that the city sustained $3 million in damages.

“Don't be misled by the fact that we weren't on TV,” Brewster said, dealing with the rising water without raising panic levels.

“We pumped out over 45 basements,” then-fire Chief Frederick Bray told council. “We had landslides (that) took a week to clean up.”

“We took 40 loads off roads,” then-acting public works director Nick Shermenti said.

Public works director Steve Kondrosky was manager of the Palisades and Marina at McKees Point at the time.

“There were some boats lost,” Kondrosky said. “A few of them broke loose and had to be rescued. Some went down the Monongahela River. Some of the docks were damaged and had to be replaced. Some of the poles and pilings had to be replaced.”

Kondrosky said the impact of Ivan on the marina was minimal compared to Jan. 31, 2001, when ice floes carried away 210 boating docks, or slips, causing a $2 million hit on the facility, which already was reeling from $1 million in flood damage the previous year.

Ivan damaged or destroyed thousands of homes and businesses in and around Pittsburgh, particularly in the Allegheny and Chartiers valleys. More than 80,000 Duquesne Light and Allegheny Power customers were without electricity at the height of the problem.

“The situation is unique in that we don't have high winds or lightning,” then-Duquesne Light spokesman John Laudenslager said. “Ninety percent of the problem is flooding and trees moving and falling down across lines.”

It led to declarations of emergency by then-County Executive Dan Onorato and 80 of 130 Allegheny municipalities, including McKeesport, West Mifflin and nearby communities.

It happened on a Friday night, washing out high school football games, including 10 in the Mon-Yough area. McKeesport Area planned to mark the 10th anniversary of the Tigers' 1994 WPIAL and PIAA titles.

“That's the most disappointing, not being able to recognize that team,” McKeesport Area athletic director Charley Kiss said. Twenty players had returned for the commemoration.

In West Mifflin, Ivan was only one in a series of incidents to affect some homeowners along a Duquesne Annex hillside.

“We've lost about 7,500 square feet of my property,” said Audrey Pavuchak. “When Ivan came, we had a lot of water that came down because the people above us were not connected into the storm sewers.”

In 2008, the borough brought in a contractor to build a retaining wall behind homes along Glenny Lane Extension.

“He took all the vegetation off the hill,” Pavuchak said. “And that has caused greater problems. Day by day, my house is falling apart.”

Some things have changed since Sept. 17, 2004. Flood control came to a part of McKeesport that is inundated anytime there is heavy rain.

At Tom Clark Chevrolet along Route 48, city officials said 400 cars had to be moved for two days when nearby Long Run overflowed again.

Prior to his death in 2003, former Mayor Joseph Bendel recalled a June 1996 event that “put a large volume of water on the Clark property” and caused collateral damage to 190 vehicles.

Clark's sales manager Ron Swauger Jr. joined the dealership in 1996 and often was involved in moving cars.

“The biggest change (since 2004) was the retaining wall that they put on the other side of 48,” Swauger said.

It was part of flood control sought since 1999.

Then-state Sen. Albert Belan reported that $2 million was set aside in the fiscal 2000 state capital budget to clear and widen the Long Run channel and establish the new retaining wall on the north side of Long Run.

After a long battle that included settling legal disputes over property rights, on Oct. 18, 2004, one month after Ivan, city council approved transfer of parts of six properties to the state for the Long Run Creek Flood Control Project.

In July 2005, Brayman Construction Co. of Saxonburg was awarded a $3.8 million contract for the work. Retaining walls went up early in 2006, and dredging of Long Run was completed by the end of 2006.

Swauger and his co-workers said there hasn't been any water buildup since the wall went up.

Some things haven't changed. Storm sewers still back up regularly at West Fifth Avenue and Rebecca Street where the Elbow Room is located.

Kondrosky oversees the crews that deal with those problems, and on East Fifth Avenue from under the Duquesne Bridge ramps to the juncture of Lincoln Way, on Eden Park Boulevard and in the bathtub-like stretch of West Fifth known as Dungy Hollow that leads to the W.D. Mansfield Memorial Bridge.

“We try to make sure we're working in conjunction with the Municipal Authority (of the City of McKeesport) in keeping the lines and the catch basins open and free of debris,” Kondrosky said. “We always have our necessary equipment ready for fallen trees and washouts in areas that need equipment to clear roadways.”

Ten years later, Kondrosky can compare Ivan to the severe storms of the summer of 2013.

“Last year we had some pretty nice storms run through this area,” he said. “After the worst winter conditions in 50 years, the weather was so bad they forgot how bad the summer was. Manholes were being lifted because of the massive water that was running under them.”

There was debris on Eden Park Boulevard where a creek was jammed up and overflowing, as well as at the juncture of Walnut Street and Eden Park, and problems occurred at Lake Emilie in Renziehausen Park.

“There was the (UPMC McKeesport) parking lot that was washed down that hillside off Arch Street, right across from the D level entrance,” Kondrosky said. “Last summer was the worst that I had the opportunity to be part of since I was with the city, and that's almost 17 years, with the exception of what happened at the Marina in 2001.”

As in 2004, the city sought assistance from the state and federal emergency management agencies.

“We were awarded some money for reimbursement,” Kondrosky said.

The city public works director said it is “pot luck” for him and his crew to figure out what the weather might do, whether forecasters will err on the side of caution or fail to predict the next disaster.

“You never know how bad something is going to be until it gets there,” Kondrosky said.

Patrick Cloonan is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-664-9161 ext. 1967, or pcloonan@tribweb.com.