FORWARD TWP — Tony Wright's emotions ran the gamut Friday.

Panic. Relief. Disbelief. Sadness. Anxiety. Helplessness. Disappointment.

And it wasn't even 9 a.m.

But one emotion was conspicuously absent given the floodwater that surrounded his family's house: anger.

“There's no time for that,” Wright said. “There's too much going on for that.”

The 55-year-old Wright was out delivering newspapers on his motor route when the combination of steady rain and snow melt caused Glade Run to overflow.

Next to the typically timid and tranquil creek sits his house on Valencia Road in Forward Township. Inside was his wife, Charlotte, their daughter, Samantha Riccitelli, and Samantha's 4-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son.

While Wright worked, his wife and daughter watched and worried as the water moved closer and closer to the home.

“At around 4 a.m., it was fine,” Riccitelli said. “An hour later, it started to get worse.”

The current surged and the water washed over the yard, eventually seeping into the garage and mud room. Soon, the home was enveloped.

The family had no safe escape.

“I wasn't scared,” Riccitelli, 25, said. “I've lived here 25 years and it was worse (in 2004) when Hurricane Ivan hit.”

Butler County's Water Rescue Team 300 got word of the trapped family and went into action. Callery and Evans City volunteer firefighters also moved in to help.

By then, Wright had made his paper deliveries and was close to home.

“I saw the one fireman here and when I saw the water coming down the road,” he said, “I knew it was bad.”

He kept in touch by cell phone with his family, isolated in the house.

Maybe an hour later, the rescue team and boat landed.

“They were concerned about the moving water,” said Mark Adomaitis, head of Team 300, referring to Riccitelli and Charlotte Wright. “They wanted out of the house but they couldn't just walk out.”

Rescuers used an inflatable boat to pick up the women and children from the home's front door and carry them to safety as Tony Wright looked on with concern.

“The kids were fine,” Adomaitis said. “They weren't crying or anything. They were troopers.”

Riccitelli wasn't particularly surprised with her well-behaved children.

“We've been through this before,” she said.

The boat later made a quick second trip back to the house to fetch a pair of suitcases the family had previously packed in anticipation of a possible evacuation.

While Wright, his wife and daughter watched the rising water from higher ground, Riccitelli's children stayed warm in their mother's running car.

The adults talked out loud about their worries: a recently filled 500-gallon propane tank in back of the house, stranded cats in the house and a backyard coop housing three dozen chickens.

The extent of damage to the home and its contents was not immediately known.

Wright said he dropped his flood insurance coverage in 2015, after the premiums became too expensive.

As the waiting game continued, the smell of gasoline — possibly coming from several junker vehicles under water — permeated the air.

Occasionally a child's colorful toy or garbage container floated past the house.

By 11 a.m. the water had begun to recede but was still too deep to allow anyone back in.

“We flood here all the time,” Wright said, “but it's usually just two feet in the driveway. This is a unique event.”

The optimist in him hoped he would be back inside later that day. And he hoped the damage would be minimal.

“Once I get in,” he said, “I'll throw some fans on to dry things out.”

In the meantime, Wright and his family made arrangements — just in case — to spend the night at a discount motel in Cranberry Township.

“One way or the other,” he said, “we'll be all right.”

<br />