Aliquippa digs out

Friday, July 06, 20070

By Dennis B. Roddy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Firemen pumped out basements and highway crews scraped mud by the tons in Aliquippa today.

Franklin Avenue was closed off as relief workers poured into Aliquippa's downtown to clean up after a freak flood floated an already listing business district one reef closer to shipwreck.

Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette

Jimmi King shovels mud on Franklin Avenue in Aliquippa today.

The streets are reopening. Fire Chief David Foringer said Franklin will be cleared by tomorrow morning.

As the mud dried, some people walked the business district in painters masks. Tiny whirlpools of dust spun in the sunlight and junk retrieved from dank, murky basements piled along the sidewalks to be carted away.

"They'll probably be doing that in most of the businesses along here," said Gene Mendenhall, an employee of the Beaver County assessment office and one of a dozen pressed into service to survey the damage. The vacant buildings in the district pose a problem.

"We still haven't gotten into a lot of them," said Chief Foringer, who officially assumes his title Monday, when the current chief leaves for another post. "We'll be forced to enter them as a last resort. It's a public health hazard. We can't leave four to six feet of water in a building."

Roughly 100 buildings were without gas, which was shut off as a precaution. The chief estimated that about 60 buildings have been badly flooded.

No estimate of damage has been worked up at this point. Most businesses, such as Brenda Lee's shop, Miajah's Hair Styling, had no flood insurance.

The flood took one of the more curious casualties: a creek. More than three inches of rain in two hours swelled a no-name creek along Baker Street on the lower end of the business district. By the time the waters receded, the creek itself was filled with mud -- seemingly lost.

Other losses were more predictable, if frustrating. Four city police cars were among an estimated 40 vehicles ruined by the water. The police cars were parked in the city lot and the rain fell with such ferocity, nobody had time to get them out.

"Also, the officers' personal vehicles were lost in the lot," said patrolman Angelo Lewis, as he cruised through the mire. "Mine's sitting over there, in the corner."