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Plum, Penn Hills Residents Picking Up The Pieces After Flash Flooding

PLUM (KDKA) -- Many people are left picking up the pieces after Monday's flash flooding.

Raging flood waters swept away several cars and dumpsters in the Penn Hills and Plum area neighborhoods.

A local army veteran, Billy Taylor, woke up to find not one, but two of his vehicles destroyed. His Chevy Silverado was wedged between a utility pole and part of a tree while his other car was swept away by flood waters a mile down the road.

"Water was above your head, I mean just look at my truck over there, my car was washed over a mile away," Taylor said. "I've never seen a flash flood so powerful to take this car and bring it at like 30-45 miles an hour."

Penn Hills resident Juanita Langham had water rushing into her home during the flooding event.

"The floors were saturated," Langham said. "The thing is, I just don't want mold to start. This is a place I have to live and I just want it to be dry."

Over in Oakmont, residents dealt with a similar situation. Many homeowners are still clearing water from their homes and yards.

"It just completely flooded out, so we had about four feet of water in our basement. Probably sewage water mixed with the Plum Creek and that stuff just covers the entire place," said Oakmont homeowner Bill Sines.

Oakmont Auto Body owner Ted Sokol has had his business for almost 70 years. He has has flooding problems for decades and Monday's flash flooding only made matters worse.

"To protect my property, I built a wall around the back of the property and it's helped stopped a lot of water from getting in here, but yesterday the water came from
down the street, up," Sokol said.

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