Saturday flooding hits county hard
John Goettler inspects damage at Red Carpet Mini Golf in North Strabane Township.
Shawn O’Hare looks at items he salvaged after weekend flooding at his Weavertown Road home in North Strabane Township.
Flooding from a weekend storm heavily damaged Red Carpet Mini Golf on Washington Road in North Strabane Township.
This is an undated photo of Red Carpet Mini Golf on Washington Road in North Strabane Township.
A colorful windmill used to stand at Red Carpet Miniature Golf in North Strabane Township.
But on Tuesday, owner John Goettler could spot pieces of it and other debris from the course, which has been in his family for 57 years, lying hundreds of yards down Route 19.
The small creek along the highway overflowed in heavy rain Saturday night, covering the greens in mud and rocks and taking the windmill, an outhouse and other fixtures of the course with it.
“There’s one of my rugs,” Goettler said Tuesday, walking along the shoulder of the highway. “There’s a piece of my windmill.” Seconds later, he added, “There’s another part of my windmill.”
“There’s pieces of the commode another mile down the road.”
Goettler isn’t alone as area home and business owners are reeling from flood damage following heavy rain Saturday.
Hardest-hit were parts of Washington County and the West Virginia panhandle, said Lee Hendricks, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh.
In much of that area, 48-hour rainfall totals ranged from 2 1/2 to about 4 inches, with 4 to 5 inches was reported in some places.
He said “these isolated incidents happen once every other year or so” in the Pittsburgh region.
“Fortunately, this time there was no loss of life,” he said, but “a lot of property damage, from what I’m understanding.”
Shawn O’Hare, 56, of North Strabane, was asleep on the couch on the first floor of his house on Weavertown Road about 9 p.m. Saturday but awoke when his wife came home.
He saw water pouring into his house from the front door.
“I’m in my socks, and I’m like, I can’t believe this is happening,” he recalled. “And my first thought was, ‘We’re going to get electrocuted.'”
O’Hare said water flowed into an open ditch where a gas line was recently laid as part of a development project uphill during a short bout of heavy rain late in the evening.
He said “it was like a dam breaking” when the water cascaded from the ditch onto the steep two-lane road and then into the home at O’Hare shares with his wife, their two teenage sons and 4-year-old grandson.
The water poured through the ceiling of the basement, he said.
On Tuesday morning, O’Hare was doing his best to dry the place out, running a fan in the basement.
A mattress, weight bench and other items were airing out on the back deck.
O’Hare said he’s most concerned about mold growing in his house. He’s spoken with the developer of the adjacent project about the damage. Disaster-restoration specialists visited his home Tuesday but won’t start without money up front.
“They pulled in and said said they couldn’t do anything without a $1,000 deposit,” O’Hare said.
Less than three miles away, Goettler was dealing with similar frustration and uncertainty as he pointed out tires that had been cemented into the creek bed next to the golf course.
“I’m only open four months out of the year. I’m already losing August,” he said.
North Strabane building inspector Mark Whalen, who was visiting Red Carpet on Tuesday afternoon, said township officials’ “hands are tied” when it comes to damage on private property.
“My advice is, cuddle up to your insurance company and have them represent you as best they can,” he told Goettler early Tuesday afternoon.
Goettler said he’d spoken with a representative from his insurer earlier in the day and expected to hear Wednesday about his eligibility for a claim.
“I’m at a loss for words,” he said. “I don’t know where to go, what to do.”