The View From Baldwin Street

Wednesday was not Alan Howe's favorite day in Pittsburgh.

The Detroit native moved to the area about five years ago, and currently lives in a building that borders Baldwin Street—by far the street hardest-hit by flooding that resulted from a Wednesday morning thunderstorm.

When he heard the rain, Howe walked down to the road from his second-story apartment to take a look, and was shocked to see chaos on the normally quiet street.

"I saw a dumpster floating down the street," he said. "I've never seen anything like it before. The water was moving my car, too, but fortunately it didn't go far. When I saw there was water up past the car tires, I just called the insurance company."

Howe said the water came up from nearby Chartiers Creek faster than anyone could prepare for it, including a Budweiser truck that was unloading a shipment to The Beer Warehouse.

After what Bridgeville firefighters called one of the worst floods to hit the borough, Howe isn't the only Bridgeville resident struggling to clean up.

Numerous local emergency departments, including fire and rescue units from Beaver Falls, Robinson, South Fayette and Peters Township, responded to aid Bridgeville police and volunteer fire departments with rescues.

Bridgeville emergency crews had to remove a fence and use a canoe to make one rescue in the Baldwin Street area, and were working Wednesday afternoon to build a barrier where the fence once was.

Baldwin Street and its sidewalks were caked with several inches of mud after being under four feet of water Wednesday morning. The flooding affected numerous homes in the area, as well as several businesses that face Railroad Street.

One of those businesses, Petrocelli's Uniform and Custom Tailoring at 427 Railroad Street, belongs to Bridgeville Council President Nino Petrocelli. He said there was about six inches of water in the building's basement.

"[Hurricane] Ivan, I think, was worse for water because then it rained for about nine hours," he said. "But this came fast, very fast. It's a lot to clean up."

Bridgeville Borough manager Lori Collins said the borough building had to close because there was about five feet of water in the lower part of the building, and adjacent Carol Avenue, as well as Bower Hill Road were closed. To see video of that flooding, click here.

And after all that, another round of storms is expected to pass through the area Wednesday night.

As far as Howe was concerned Wednesday morning, everyone was safe, and all he and his neighbors could do was clean up and help each other.

"I'm ok and my apartment is safe," he said. "Nobody got hurt, that I know of. The fire department was great. They got here quick and they're doing as much as they can. It's all cool and it's something we have to work through. God's in control."