Public works, school districts prepare for remnants of hurricane
The National Weather Services has issued flash flood and hazardous weather warnings for Washington, Greene and Fayette counties through late Wednesday night.
Local public works departments and school districts spent Monday and Tuesday preparing for the remnants of Hurricane Ida to bring excessive rain to and cause damage throughout the region Wednesday.
“We went around yesterday and today and cleaned all our drains off, made sure all our inlet pipes were open,” said Aaron Lucero, the city of Washington’s public works director. “We’re just going to monitor the situation from there.”
Lucero said a couple locations in Washington are particularly susceptible to flooding, but noted he’s on call in case of emergency.
Tom Lovell, North Strabane Township’s public works director, said his crew spent Tuesday checking cross pipes for blockage and making sure the township was prepared for excessive rain.
He said public works employees will be called out as needed and cautioned drivers to be extra careful on the roads.
“Never drive through any type of standing water,” said Lovell. “You never know how deep it’s going to be.”
Chartiers-Houston School District issued a phone blast to parents around noon Tuesday, notifying them school would be remote Wednesday.
“I think Hurricane Ivan is in the back of everyone’s mind,” said Superintendent Dr. Gary Peiffer. “We’ve got some concerns, looking at the weather, for the torrential rains and flash flooding. We could get 2 inches or we could get more. We just had a concern for the safety of our students, for the safety of our staff.”
Peiffer said the administration met late Tuesday afternoon. The bus garage pointed out areas within the district that could flood, and Peiffer made the decision to move Wednesday’s classes online.
“It’s hard to predict. I’d rather be proactive,” he said. “Now that we have everything online, we can make that call.”
Washington School District was also monitoring the weather. Superintendent James Konrad said the school district would notify parents Tuesday night about a potential weather-related cancellation Wednesday, but there would be no final decision until after 6:30 Wednesday morning.
“It’s a possibility,” said Konrad.
Central Greene School District was also considering holding classes remotely Wednesday. On Tuesday, an alert on the district’s website read, “…we wanted to be proactive in notifying all district stakeholders of the possibility of implementing a flexible instructional day as we prepare for the remnants of Hurricane Ida.”
In a news release issued late Tuesday afternoon, Pennsylvania American Water said it had a readiness effort plan in place to reduce the potential impact of Hurricane Ida on its water and wastewater treatment plants, pump stations and dams.
“Our team of water experts is highly trained on disaster preparedness, incident response and emergency management,” said Jim Runzer, vice president of eastern operations for Pennsylvania American Water, in the release. “If floodwaters rise, our team will work hard to meet the challenge of keeping our systems operational and restoring service quickly if they are impacted.”
The water company reminded customers to avoid driving through or wading in floodwaters. The company also said to seek higher ground if flooding occurs in your area.