Ligonier-area residents evacuated after Mill Creek floods

Doug Joyner and his wife, Deborah, sat in a makeshift shelter at the Ligonier Valley YMCA on Friday afternoon with a bag of documents they had quickly gathered, chatting with Salvation Army and American Red Cross volunteers.

“We were having breakfast this morning when all of a sudden our backyard turned into a dirty, brown lake. It kept creeping toward the house. It wasn't long before the street in front of the house flooded,” said Doug Joyner, 69, of Ligonier.

After heavy rains, water from the overflowing creek nearby moved so quickly and powerfully that it ripped off a basement door at their Mill Creek Street home, he said.

“I peeked downstairs. Just two (basement) stairs were uncovered. Boxes were floating by. If it got to the first floor, it would have been catastrophic,” Joyner said.

The Westmoreland County Water Rescue Team used boats to rescue 11 people from Ligonier homes after Mill Creek rose, turning some yards and streets into lakes.

By mid-afternoon, firefighters were pumping out flooded basements and residents were cleaning up.

Indian, Chestnut and Mill Creek streets and North Avenue were among the hardest hit, borough fire Chief Steve Barron said.

“The speed that it came up is what really hurt the situation,” he said.

Beginning about 8 a.m., the department logged more than 20 calls from people who were stranded and requests to check on others' welfare, he said. No injuries were reported.

Barron expected more calls by evening as people returned from work and found water in their homes.“We will get to them as we can,” he said.

The National Weather Service had issued a flash flood warning for the area, where about 4 inches of rain fell in the villages of Oak Grove, Wilpen and Waterford in Ligonier Township.

“It seems the storm came up over the ridge and stalled before going on over the mountain,” Darlington fire Chief Bob McDowell said. “Most of the rain was north of Ligonier and north of Route 30. All that flooding in Ligonier this morning is due from the rain hitting up north and it is now flowing off the mountain into the creeks toward Loyalhanna Creek.”

Joyner praised the firefighters who helped him and his 62-year-old wife, who has health issues, into a boat, then to a utility fire truck for the ride to the YMCA.

The facility took in a handful of people, said Jeff Kish, business manager.

“Everyone has been wonderful,” Joyner said. “Hopefully, we will get back tonight.”

Elsewhere in the borough, driveways and vehicles, all once submerged, reappeared by afternoon.

Roxane Melius of Richland, Cambria County, stood back from her office at Cuda Sales and Solutions on Indian Street and wondered what awaited her inside.

She had just returned from a grocery store when a police officer stopped her.

“He said, ‘If you want to get out, you better get out now.' I grabbed my purse and phone and left. It just came so fast,” she said.

Regina Puschnigg, 68, said it was her third, and worst, flooding experience in six years.

Rescuers helped Puschnigg climb into a boat after the front lawn of her rental home on Indian Street flooded.

“The water was up to the firefighters' chests when they walked me across in the boat,” she said.

Neighbors piled bicycles, appliances and golf clubs in their yards after pulling them from flooded basements and garages.

Ligonier Township police Chief Mike Matrunics said water overflowed creek banks there, and officials temporarily close several roads.

Matrunics said damages in the borough would be assessed once the water receded enough for people to return home.

“The safety of the people is first. We can worry about property after the water recedes,” he said.

McDowell said the water was high at Kingston Dam along Route 30, but the most serious flooding was north of the highway.

“The Darlington area wasn't too bad. Two Mile Run and Ross Road, we had a little flooding,” the fire chief said.

Mary Pickels is a Tribune-Review staff writer.