Floods wreak havoc across several towns
Flooding from Wednesday's storms created a busy night for emergency services and affected at least one school Thursday morning.
Butler Area School District Assistant Superintendent Brian Slamecka sent an announcement through the district's alert system.
“Due to roads being closed to flooding, some buses will be running approximately 15 minutes behind schedule this morning,” said Slamecka in the alert.
Following a storm that swept through the county, emergency services were called many times to assist with flooding, downed wires and alarms, in addition to regular calls.
On Wednesday, Butler County 911 dispatched a total of 62 calls, according to the county's records.
Of those calls, 28 were for flooding and nine were for downed wires.
Two fire departments, Unionville and Cranberry Township, both responded to 14 storm-related calls Wednesday.
Unionville Assistant Fire Chief Nathan Wulff said his crews were seemingly on one call after another for about five hours.
“The first two hours, it was just a steady, heavy rain,” he said. “I was soaked, head to toe.”
Wulff said for some instances of flooding, they found water as deep as three feet. He said he only remembers one call for a disabled vehicle. He said the driver in that incident was not injured.
Around 5:47 p.m., Wulff's crews responded to a call at the Giant Eagle, at 1521 North Main Street Extension, where the parking lot flooded. Wulff said there were multiple vehicles parked in the lot, and the water was up to about the doors for most of them.
Wulff said the most severe flooding in his coverage area came in two areas, one on Glenwood Way and the other on Oneida Valley Road. Wulff said at first, the water flowed over the roads because of clogged drainage, which his crew cleared. He said not long afterward, the Connoquenessing Creek's water levels caused further flooding.
“It looked like a raging river going across it,” Wulff said. “Once the creek rose, there really wasn't anything you could do with it.”
According to Cranberry Township Fire Chief Scott Garing, his crew responded more to flooded basements than roads.
“The water issue was largely from sump pumps failing due to a lot of water,” Garing said.
Crews in Butler also had to deal with flooded basements where Sullivan Run meets the residential West Brady Street.
Garing said there was also one call from Beaver County for a car that was in the water, but crews were called off quickly. He said his firefighters also responded to two reports of lightning strikes, neither amounting to any substantial need of their services.
Garing said he was pleased with his staffing levels and the response of his firefighters on such a busy night.
“We had plenty of help,” he said. “We had about six different apparatus going from call to call.”
Butler County had no active weather alerts as of Thursday evening, according to the National Weather Service, but there is more rain in the forecast.
There is a 50% chance of rain or thunderstorms in each of Friday's, Saturday's, Sunday's and Monday's forecasts, although estimates for rainfall amounts are for less than a tenth of an inch.
Chances of rain and thunderstorms are expected Tuesday and Wednesday, but the likelihoods for those storms are 40% and 30%, respectively.
