Flooding soaks northeast
Heavy rain Wednesday afternoon led to serious flooding, primarily in northeastern Butler County.
Major flooding took place in Allegheny, Donegal, Fairview and Parker townships as well as Bruin, Cherry Valley, Chicora and Petrolia.
Flooding also took place in Buffalo and Winfield townships.
The National Weather Service in Pittsburgh did not have an exact tally of rainfall, but meteorologist Lee Hendricks said that it is possible that up to 5 inches fell Wednesday.
“There was a good deal of unusually heavy rain,” Hendricks said.
In Chicora, Mary Rafferty of 109 Spring St. was putting up with her third flood in 12 weeks.
“This is just getting so old,” Rafferty said.
She said her yard and basement were flooded, and so was her street.
Rafferty lives at the bottom of a hill below Chicora Elementary School, and says runoff from drainage pipes caused flooding.
Her insurance company will not cover the incidents. She spoke to the borough, who told her to talk to the Karns City School District, since it owns the pipes. When she spoke to the district, officials told her to talk to the borough.
She said that other houses on her street have similar problems, but she gets the worst of it.
A single mother of two, Rafferty said she is unable to constantly pay for repairs.
“I'm at my wit's end,” Rafferty said.
Frances Nichol, who lives on Petrolia Street in Karns City, said 2 inches of water filled her entire basement.
“I am very upset about it,” she said.
It was the second time in the past month her basement has flooded.She attributed the increase in flooding to a mining site near her home.“We've never had this issue before,” she said. “Now it's hit us twice in the past month.”Nichol said this flood was worse than the incident earlier in the summer, as it ruined the tile on the basement floor.The Karns City School District also had issues with the rain on its first day of school.Superintendent Eric Ritzert said flooded roads delayed bus routes throughout the district for up to an hour.“We had numerous issues with road closures across the district,” he said. “But we eventually got all kids home safely.”Ritzert said students living in Bradys Bend Township in Armstrong County had the longest delays.The road closures included Route 268 in Petrolia, Bruin and Fairview Township, Route 68 in Chicora and Route 38 in Cherry Valley. Flooding left some cars stranded on the roads. All three roads have been reopened.Parts of other roads, including Hooker Road, Slippery Rock Road and Butternut Road, also were washed out.Slippery Rock Road has been reopened.Although many basements and roads were flooded, Butler County 911 reported no injuries.The county 911 took nearly 30 flood-related calls between 1:15 and 4 p.m. About 10 fire companies responded, with the Bruin and Petrolia volunteer fire departments in charge.Larry Gifford, a firefighter with the Petrolia Volunteer Fire Department, said that the worst flooding he ever saw took place in 1980.“But, (Wednesday was) probably the closest to what we had in '80 (since then),” Gifford said. “It was pretty bad.”He said there were 4 to 6 inches of water at the intersection of Main and Jamison streets in Petrolia. He said heavy rain created a lot of runoff and led to the south branch of Bear Creek flooding.He said a few stores in the borough as well as the Petrolia Community Park sustained damage.Because nearby fire departments were busy with their own flooding, Gifford said that Petrolia had to call the Lick Hill and East Butler volunteer fire departments to help.The Butler County Water Rescue Team was called to assist. Chief Mark Lauer said the team was put on standby but ultimately did not have to be used.Later in the day, county crews were assisting in flooded areas of Armstrong County. Several roads in the county had to be closed due to flooding.Chief Randy Bowser of the Worthington Volunteer Fire Department said that he did not return home until 10 p.m. Wednesday because of the flooding. He said that many houses had several feet of water in their basements.He said Wednesday's flooding was slightly worse than the flooding that happened during Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
