A torrential downpour on Saturday afternoon turned streets, a stadium and parking lots in Washington into flood zones, and Mayor Jojo Burgess responded by declaring a five-day state of emergency. The water came fast enough to force a football suspension at Cameron Stadium, submerge a car on Jefferson Avenue and send crews scrambling across the city.
Burgess said he had never seen it hit like that before. He described the storm as quick and fast, and said the rainfall and weather conditions were extraordinary.
The National Weather Service in Pittsburgh had issued a flash flood warning for the central part of Washington County, and the warning proved justified within hours. Park Avenue in Washington was underwater and impassable after thunderstorms descended on the area about 2:30 p.m., while water poured into Cameron Stadium and overflowed Catfish Creek sent water across the field and into Chapman Corporation's parking lot.
The flooding was not limited to one block. Water gushed from manholes at Jefferson at Wylie avenues, and one car on Jefferson Avenue near Jollick Manor was submerged up to its windows before the driver was rescued. In South Strabane, officials also declared a state of emergency, and the parking lot at the South Strabane Fire Department on Oak Spring Road suffered severe damage after a sinkhole opened behind the building.
What made the afternoon jarring was the speed of the change. Burgess said the water was shooting up through drains like Old Faithful, and he said you could see it rising and bursting into the air almost as soon as the storm hit. Yet by 5 p.m., most main roads had reopened as the water receded, a reminder that even a severe flood can leave behind a fast-moving cleanup instead of a long rescue scene.
Washington & Jefferson College's game against Keystone College was suspended during the storm and later ended in a 42-0 win for Washington & Jefferson College, with the lightning delay limiting the number of fans on hand. That may have kept the crowd smaller, but it did not lessen the concern for people trying to move through knee-high water around the stadium.
Park Avenue has a reputation for flooding, and this storm again showed how quickly trouble can spread when heavy rain hits the area. Recent severe weather has not led to deaths or serious injuries, but Saturday's flooding left Washington and South Strabane with emergency orders in place and a clearer sense of how fragile the drainage system can be when the rain arrives all at once.
The immediate crisis eased by evening, but the larger question is how much damage the water did to roads, basements, cars and public property before it ran off. For Burgess, the answer so far is that the city was hit hard and fast enough to justify a five-day emergency declaration, even if the water itself moved on before nightfall.
