City of Washington declares state of emergency after severe flash flooding

The mayor of Washington, Pennsylvania, declared a state of emergency after heavy rain caused flash flooding at levels they haven't seen in years. 

The state of emergency will help allow them to recoup the extra costs associated with the storm.

"It was bad," said Mayor JoJo Burgess, who explained it is the worst flooding the city has faced in years.

He and his wife were driving down a road near city hall when they spotted a car in the middle of the flooded road. Video they shared with KDKA-TV shows someone jumping out of the driver's side window, with another person standing in the flooded road helping the first individual get out. 

"It was like, wow, that's an eye-opener, because it usually doesn't flood like that," Burgess said. 

Down Jefferson Avenue, the manager of Phantom Fireworks watched as cars avoided the flooded street by driving through his flooded parking lot.

"I thought they were crazy actually, because that can do a lot of damage to your car," Ray Miniotas said. 

A layer of gravel is spread across the Phantom Fireworks parking lot, which he'll have to clean up. He's already picked up the tree limbs, he added.

Other streets in the city have debris on them too from all the flooding, Burgess said. 

KDKA-TV's crew found water coming out of manholes. In some cases, manholes came off entirely. 

"There was a manhole cover that was laying beside the manhole, with just a cone laying on top of it, water shooting out of a giant hole in the middle of the road," said Daniel Phillips. "I almost hit it. I'd seen someone swerve, and it was crazy."

Burgess said they'd just cleaned their storm drains last week.

"This was so significant, you could tell that the drains were working, but the system that is underground here was so bad that the water was going in, and that's why it was coming out of the manhole covers," Burgess said. "It was just so fast that it pushed the manhole covers up and flooded the road."

Local fire departments spent hours pumping water out of the basement of homes, Burgess said.

The city is no stranger to flooding.

Miniotas said this is the third time since his location opened up in June that there has been street flooding.

"They [officials] have to do something. I mean, you got a busy intersection, four-way intersection, cars in and out of here all day. Tractor-trailers coming in and out of here all day. It's dangerous for everybody and the businesses and everything around the homes."

Burgess acknowledged the stretch in front of Phantom Fireworks has seen repeated flooding. He added that, like many roads in the city, they are maintained by the state, preventing the city from touching them without permission.

"We're going to get our people in touch with them to see what we need to do to make sure that's taken care of," Burgess said.