Storms from Tuesday night into the overnight hours downed multiple trees and caused massive flooding in some of Pittsburgh’s northern suburbs, closing a few schools and prompting the small borough of Zelienople to declare a state of emergency.
Zelienople’s mayor, Thomas M. Oliverio, took to Facebook to announce the state of emergency Tuesday night after heavy rains flooded several downtown streets, businesses and residences.
“This is a bad one, this is a bad one,” said Josh Meeder, owner of The Center of Harmony on Mercer Street that houses an historic opera hall and a number of shops and businesses. “There’s nowhere for the water to go.”
Mr. Oliverio urged all residents "to stay indoors and avoid traveling on Main Street Area, East Beaver Street, West Beaver Street, Jefferson Street, Clay Street, Green Lane and West New Castle Street," according to the post.
Emergency officials said there were about 25 water rescues since Tuesday night.
Eugene Bartlett, of nearby Harmony, said Wednesday morning that East Beaver Street in downtown Zelienople was under 3 feet of water due to the heavy rain. He was cleaning up mud and debris left behind after the warehouse where he works flooded on South Main Street.
Mr. Bartlett said the rain finally ended around midnight.
Shannon Hefferan, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh, said Zelienople and the southern Butler region saw between 4 and 5 inches of rain overnight.
With the Connoquenessing Creek at Zelienople just over 15ft, today is now ranked #3 for historic crests for this station. The #1 crest was 18.17ft during Hurricane Ivan....#2 (16.66ft) was June of 1924. The creek hasn't been near this stage since December of 2010. pic.twitter.com/7vz5sJU7h0
— NWS Pittsburgh (@NWSPittsburgh) May 29, 2019
Flooding was also a problem in Fawn near Tarentum, where three roads were closed: Lardintown (from Route 908 to Butler County), Bull Creek Road (from Ridge Road to Howes Run Road) and Howes Run Road (from Donnellville Road to Route 908).
In Hampton, crews worked quickly early Wednesday to clear Route 8 near McCully Road before the morning rush hour after a tree fell across the roadway shutting the main artery down. Route 8 reopened around 6:30 a.m.
School closings/delays
Power outages due to the storms forced some schools to close:
▪ North Allegheny Senior High School is closed Wednesday and the district has told all high school students to report to the intermediate school.
▪ Pine-Richland Middle School announced that is has closed due to a water and electrical issues connected to the storms. All other schools in the district are open, although some school bus routes may be delayed due to road conditions from the storm.
▪ Riverside Beaver County School is closed due to flooding.
▪ Seneca Valley School District said its schools are operating on a two-hour delay due to storm debris, area flooding and power outages.
Large hail, damaging winds
Tuesday’s storms also produced large hail in the North Hills and in Armstrong and Venango counties:
When we say there is the potential for large hail, here is an example of what that means. This picture was taken in Victory Township Venango county PA. #pawx Large hail is a concern again this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/ccFpNjVk4B
— NWS Pittsburgh (@NWSPittsburgh) May 29, 2019
My parents’ house in Pine-Richland, north of #Pittsburgh. Both cars damaged from #hail. pic.twitter.com/eVqKUsvTLz
— Tricia Rae (@tricia_rae) May 28, 2019
Check out the hail coming down in Kittanning!
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (@PittsburghPG) May 28, 2019
Have you seen any hail from Tuesday's thunderstorms?
Thanks to Bo Harmon for submitting the photos/video. pic.twitter.com/ttxe2B3eG1
Looking ahead, the forecast calls for severe thunderstorms through Thursday, with highs in the 70s. Wednesday will see cloudy skies with a thunderstorm later in the day.
The National Weather Service has issued a thunderstorm watch for all of southwestern Pennsylvania through 7 tonight and a flash flood watch until 2 a.m. Thursday.
A tornado watch had been issued Tuesday night and expired around 10 p.m. There were no official reports of tornadoes in Western Pennsylvania, although at least one apparent twister was caught on video touching down in Indiana County:
BREAKING VIDEO: Possible tornado touching down in Indiana, Pennsylvania outside of #Pittsburgh. This video just into the newsroom from Indiana County. https://t.co/PjeB2LFNhT #pawx #Tornado #severeweather #SevereWx pic.twitter.com/41kbnAIler
— KDKA (@KDKA) May 28, 2019
The weather service said it would be sending out a survey team to assess storm damage in the Cherryhill Township area to determine whether a tornado did touch down.
Weather officials did confirm two tornadoes touched down over the Memorial Day weekend in Indiana County — the first twisters recorded in the county in more than 17 years.
No injuries were reported, but there was some property damage and significant damage to trees. The first twister to strike — measuring at an EF1, the second-weakest designation on the Enhanced Fujita scale —- hit Burrell around 8:27 p.m. Saturday and reached a speed of about 90 mph, the weather service said.
A few minutes later, around 8:32 p.m., another tornado was reported in Homer City. It was the weakest type, measuring EF0, with maximum winds of around 70 mph.
First Published: May 29, 2019, 9:57 a.m.
