The remnants of Hurricane Ivan spawned the worst flooding in recent memory throughout the Valley on Friday.
As much as 7 inches of rain fell, mostly throughout the afternoon and early evening, closing dozens of roads, cutting off entire neighborhoods with floodwaters and forcing the evacuation of hundreds in sections of the Valley from Armstrong to Allegheny counties.
The rain didn't discriminate. Hard-hit areas virtually were everywhere. The worst flooding was anywhere near a stream or creek. Buffalo Creek in the Freeport area, Bull Creek in Tarentum, Puckety Creek -- all raged out of their banks. Residents required rescue in Lower Burrell, Gilpin, West Deer, Millvale, Upper Burrell, Tarentum and various other areas.
There was a late report that the Laneville Bridge had been destroyed and, according to a police radio transmission, "Freeport is shut down and sealed tight."
Tarentum awash
It was a surreal scene along Davidson Street.
The road was gone. Entire homes were under water. Residents desperately clung to rooftops and raging water was everywhere.
The ferocity of the flooding from swollen Bull Creek was unparalleled. Rescuers stymied in their efforts to reach those trapped atop their homes worked feverishly to find some way into the hollow surrounding Davidson Street.
Makeshift lighting, from mobile flood lights and at least one helicopter showed emergency personnel trying to cut a path down one of the steep hillsides. After dark, fire officials said search and recovery -- it simply wasn't known if everyone got out alive -- would have to wait until daylight.
No fatalities were known and everyone seemed to be accounted for, Tarentum rescue personnel said early today. Earlier, they could not account for 10 residents.
"I wish it would stop," Teddy Smith said in an exasperated voice as she looked up at the sky.
Rain continued to pelt Smith as she stood at the beginning of what only a few hours before had been the street that led to her home where rescuers still were trying to get to her husband, Jack.
Jack Smith chose not to evacuate the home probably believing that flood waters never would reach the second floor of the couple's home. In the 13 years the Smiths have lived in the home there had been only minor flooding that came up into the yard a little bit.
But this time it was different.
Teddy Smith said she believes her husband may have wanted to stay with their nine cats. But she had no way of knowing since Jack doesn't have a cell phone and power had been cut to the entire area.
Many Davidson Street residents who didn't leave climbed to their roofs hoping and praying that one of the three rescue boats would be able to get to them. But pitch darkness and debris crashing into the boats was hindering progress.
Richard Verner was one Davidson Street resident who was able to get out before the flood waters ravaged the area. In fact, rescuers were using Verner's boat to try to save those who were still in their homes.
Knowing he had lost everything, Verner found it a small consolation that at least his boat would be saved.
"We never thought it would get this high," Verner said looking over the destruction.
He said he was told when the Route 28 expressway was constructed, he wouldn't need flood insurance so it was something he never bothered to purchase.
"My house is destroyed," Verner said. "There's no doubt about it. Who would ever think Bull Creek would get as high as the Allegheny River?" he said.
All over Mill Street, which turns into Davidson, people looked at each other in disbelief.
Tarentum Salvation Army Captain Dave Rhodes was in the area, with other volunteers tying to provide some sort of comfort in the form of a cup of coffee, sandwich, or a hug. He said members of the Salvation Army will do all they can during the course of the cleanup.
Tarentum Borough Manager Jeff Thomas said concerns were limited Friday to trying to rescue all of the people clinging to their roofs. But he also knows that borough officials have a huge cleanup effort ahead.
Meanwhile Teddy Smith was coming to the realization that she needed to find someplace to spend the night.
"Maybe I'll try to find a room at the Clarion Hotel," she said as she walked away with so much uncertainty.
Stranded in Lower Burrell
Even though the rest of his street had been evacuated due to the rising Puckety Creek, Mike Venglik and his family had prepared to camp for the night at his Wells Avenue house.
That was until the Greensburg Fire Department dive team floated up to his door in a rescue raft. It was a mandatory evacuation.
By 6 p.m., firefighters had gotten everyone else on Wells Avenue out of their houses and were about to evacuate the Vengliks when porch-high waters forced the firefighters to flee.
They tried boats next, but that effort was delayed several hours because the water flowing across Greensburg Road and into Wells Avenue was too swift for firefighters to control a raft.
The strong water pushed parked cars into ditches. The torrents lifted sections of pavement from Greensburg Road, which was blocked to traffic for hours in both directions.
It wasn't until after 8 p.m. that the water had calmed enough for a rescue boat to paddle out to the Vengliks' house.
"The water came up so fast it was unbelievable," said Venglik as he was being led to a school bus with his wife, Marlene, and daughter, Melissa.
During evening rush hour, firefighters canvassed the flooded Kinloch area to get folks out of their homes and shut off their gas meters outside. Much to some residents' dismay, basement pumping would have to wait until today.
The hardest hit areas were the streets of Michelle, Wills, Wells, Pacific, Atlantic and across Greensburg Road on Crystal Springs Drive in Plum, where the Crystal Springs bridge was overtaken with water.
Also, Puckety Creek flows behind Chicago Avenue in Kinloch, and the swollen stream turned residents' backyards into what looked like prehistoric swamps.
That mess was in Holly and Chris Gates' backyard. Their 4-foot-tall fence was covered, with only the knobs on top visible; their children's swing set and slide had been knocked over. Inside, family members feverishly worked the buckets.
Other residents saw their dryers floating away in their basements. Sump pumps proved no match for the sudden deluge. Five-year Chicago Avenue resident Jamie Johnson said the water in her basement was neck high.
In addition to Lower Burrell and Greensburg fire companies, volunteers from Arnold, Logans Ferry, Mount Pleasant and Vandergrift assisted in Kinloch. So did the Westmoreland County Swift Water Rescue team.
During a rescue boat attempt to save five stranded firefighters and three stranded residents on Crystal Springs Drive, Braeburn Fire Co.'s inflatable boat got carried away in the current and two firefighters had hold an electric power wire to wade back across Greensburg Road.
The waters on Crystal Springs Drive eventually receded, allowing the eight people to seek higher ground.
Firefighters rescued an unconscious man on Pacific Avenue, but additional details were not available.
As the members of Venglik family were being floated back to safety on the rescue boat, Lower Burrell Councilman David Regoli looked up at the sky, knowing that an additional 1.5 inches of rain could fall by 3 a.m. today.
"This is the worst scene that I've ever witnessed," Regoli said. "It's like fighting a war with a B.B. gun."
Kiski Valley inundated
Residents in the Georgetown section of Gilpin said floodwaters hit so suddenly it was if someone broke open a dam on the hillside above them.
"This is the worst destruction I've ever seen," said William Mazeres, 19, an Evergreen Road resident. "This is crazy."
Mazeres said his basement was flooded waist-deep. But the house Mazeres shares with his mother, Sara, 62, faired better than many of the others on his street.
Water flowed heavily into the front doors of several homes, starting with his next-door neighbor's and moving up the street.
It sounded as if the Atlantic Ocean was beating against the rocks in coastal North Carolina at high tide, and looked as if the water could wash some of the homes off their foundations.
"I feel bad for a lot of the people on this street," Mazeres said. "Most of them don't have flood insurance." Mazeres said he didn't have flood insurance, and was thankful there weren't many items of sentimental value in his basement.
Sadly, Friday's floods were just another setback for Mazeres and his mother. Mazeres said his father, Gaston, died a week ago, and was buried Thursday.
"It's been one heartbreak after another," Mazeres said.
Another Evergreen Road resident, Mike Reed, 25, said he left for a doctor's appointment about noon Friday, and came back about 3 p.m. to a totally different world.
Reed said the small creek was high when he left, but looked nothing like it did when he returned from his appointment.
After helping push some cars out of a ditch in front of his house, Reed was left soaked and shivering.
"I might as well stay wet," he said.
The residents in the Georgetown section of the township not only had to deal with flooding, but like many people around the Alle-Kiski Valley, were without power.
Closer to the heart of the township, along Route 66, residents were without power, but were watching the flooding from their porches in relative safety.
"This is the worst I've seen since Hurricane Agnes in 1972," said Jack McIntire, who, about 6 p.m., had collected more than 7 inches of precipitation in his rain gauge.
McIntire's neighbor, Jan Stephens, said it took her more than an hour to get to her home along Route 66 from Brackenridge. She said she tried three different routes.
Along Schenley Road, several residents there were watching floodwaters, which washed out a small walking bridge, rush through their yards.
Shady Lane resident Dave Hogue said the bridge washed up against his gas line, which had him worried. He echoed McIntire's comment, saying, "This is the worst I've ever seen."
Wading through New Kensington
The Greensburg Road closing frustrated numerous drivers who had maneuvered through the Save-A- Lot parking lot for their usual shortcut. Most had been told to use Seventh Street, but they found it closed because of flooding.
Barbara Mele, of Hill Street, and her sister, Bethany Livingood, also Hill Street, huddled under an umbrella at the parking lot access road.
"We're trying to get to my four kids," Mele said, imploring the firefighters to allow her to walk home. The unidentified firefighters said it was too dangerous and that others firefighters and EMTs were there and would move the children to safety if that were needed.
By 5:30 p.m. drivers encountered bumper-deep water in front of the McDonald's restaurant.
Around the corner in the Club Fitness parking lot, Kinloch firefighter Randy Shank was preparing a rescue boat and coordinating with others to evacuate people from Kinloch. His truck and a firefighter's pick-up were the only ones allowed to move down Greensburg Road toward the danger.
Down the street at Seventh Street Road and Stevenson Boulevard, the water was rising fast enough that a city police officer blocking the road had to move his to move his car three times in 15 minutes.
Joe Garcia, of New Kensington, looked out the porch of his sign business at the corner of Stevenson Boulevard and Seventh Street Road and shook his head.
The rising Puckety Creek was invading his yard and threatening the porch. He had returned to turn off the electricity, but said he couldn't reach the electrical panel.
"It's a foot-and-a-half higher than it was in June," he said.
Then, his sign shop lost its furnace and other items. Garcia said he had the furnace put into the basement ceiling.
"It's never been used. Now the water is only 5 inches away from that. I wish it would quit raining so that the water level would go down," he said, just before leaving the building and driving away.
Firefighters said parts of New Kensington's Parnassus section were evacuated before 5 p.m.
Elsewhere, cars plowed through at least 2 feet of water near the Sunoco along Route 56.
That part of the road closed within 10 minutes when water flowed over a small bridge near G&L Motors.
West Deer flooding
Six employees at Laurel Savings in the Russellton section of West Deer stood outside of the bank trying to decide how they were going to get to safety.
Water from Little Deer Creek had spilled its banks and looked more like the Allegheny River than the small trickle that normally runs beside the business.
A West Deer Police officer who was directing traffic came to the women's aid and helped them get to their cars which were sitting in the parking lot partially submerged.
The women were eventually able to find some high ground and take refuge under the roof of a car wash.
Branch Manager Lu Ann Keener said they were looking at the creek rise all day, but it rapidly came up to the door of the bank. Keener said they closed at about 2:30 p.m., and employees were finally able to get out of the bank at about 4 p.m.
By that time about a foot of water had already made its way into the business.
"I was just shocked how quick in came up within an hour," Keener said.
The entire Russellton section of the township was under about four feet of water by 4 p.m.
It looked at though some people decided that the water was rising too fast as cars sat in the middle of the road.
A common scene at about 4:30 p.m. was for people to evaluate the situation, turn around, and quickly reach for their cell phones. Getting out of the township proved to be a challenge as parts of Crawford Run Road and Baillies Run Road were closed due to flooding.
Weldon Kistler, of Frazer, was one person who had to turn around. He said he's lived in the area for 15 years and had never seen a flood like Friday's.
Others decided they could make it through the flooded area and drove through as water reached up to their windshields.
Parts of Freeport Road in East Deer were also underwater.
Officials were also forced to close Deer Lakes Park as the lakes in the park spilled their banks.
Dennis Truckley, of Kittanning, came to the bank to pick up his wife, Jennifer, but he also used it as an opportunity to take pictures. The photographer was almost waist deep in water snapping pictures with his digital camera.
"I didn't expect this," Dennis Truckley said in amazement.
Both Debbie Kriedler, of Fawn, and Cathy Walters, of West Deer, were also waiting it out under the sanctuary of the car wash roof.
Walters lives only about three minutes away from the bank , but would have had to have crossed the massive flood area to get to her home, which sits on high ground.
"I though about it, but I'm scared of being pushed away," Walter said.
Kriedler said she wasn't sure if she would have been able to get home as parts of Fawn were also underwater.
"I'm just gonna wait it out," she said, "with the ladies here."
The bank was scheduled to be closed today, but Keener knew she has a massive cleanup to look forward to.
"And I'm supposed to be on vacation," she said with a laugh.
Butler County not spared
Butler County was one of the first in the Valley to declare a state of emergency at about 4:45 p.m., urging residents to stay off the roads.
"With roads closed and properties being affected, local communities can better address their problems faster if emergency crews didn't have to rescue stranded drivers, said Commissioner Scott Lowe.
"We are taking this proactive step so we can better respond to the devastating rainfall affecting many parts of the county," Lowe said.
Crews began closing roads around Saxonburg at about 2:30 p.m., starting with Dinnerbell Road west of the borough in Jefferson Township.
Students leaving the South Butler County School District complex were unable to exit Knoch Road at Dinnerbell and had to find alternate routes. Many buses had to be rerouted to avoid washed out roads and there were delays of at least an hour in getting many elementary school kids home.
People trying to drive east from Saxonburg after 4 p.m. were all but stranded in the borough as many roads were closed and several more covered with rushing water.
Cars were unable to ford portions of Winfield, Neupert and Alwine roads in Jefferson Township and several stretches of Freeport Street and Ekastown Road in Clinton Township were almost impassible.
In Cabot, Valley News Dispatch photographer Steve Dietz came home around 6 p.m. to find his car was in danger of being swept away.
"Several neighbors were trying to move it out of the way for me before I got there," Dietz said. "The flood watermark is up 4 or 5 feet to the first floor of people's homes. Some people's homes are completely destroyed.
"Families were coming with SUVs to pack as much of their things as they could fit in and left."
At 7:30 p.m., the Butler County Emergency Management Agency issued a warning for residents in the flood path of the Lake Saxony Dam to evacuate, as the spillway was eroding and threatening to flood the small creek leading to Buffalo Creek in Buffalo Township.
The dam is located on the back portion of Saxony Farms west of Saxonburg, and the overflow path would funnel water over Alwine Road, into a valley along Riemer Road and into the Coal Hollow area, eventually crossing Route 356 near the intersection with Route 228 and flowing into Buffalo Creek.
Anyone living close to the creek was told to evacuate. The warnings later were lifted as rain in the area eased and water began to recede.
In Buffalo Township, Ekastown Road near Pajer Farm Market and Parker Road near Route 356 both were closed by 4 p.m.
Staff writers Rob Amen, Liz Hayes, Jason Walker, Chuck Biedka, Jon Szish, Stephanie Ritenbaugh, Michael Aubele and Wynne Everett contributed to this report.
