Residents in Clearfield and Curwensville dealt with flooded basements this morning after hours of rainfall.
We found one woman we’ve interviewed before for flood damage who was dealing with flooding again.
We first met Kim Rager in August as she waited for Methodist volunteers to return and put new skirting on her trailer after June’s flood. Today, water damaged that new skirting.
“There was only one area and that’s that area right over there by the fence. That ‘s the only place. It’s mostly going under it and going out underneath,” says Rager.
Rager moved here after being flooded in Westover. While the water moved fast on Willow Drive, it wasn’t doing too much damage.
“With all the hills up here and the water comes down out of the strippings out here and off the mountain and everything, it’s just, what do you do?” says resident/park manager James Anderson.
Near Lezzer Lumber in Curwensville, a driver says her car shut off in the pooling water around 10 a.m. We watched several other vehicles on driving right through.
Water flowed high in Anderson Creek and also made this intersection at River Street, 879, and Bloomington tricky.
And not long after we were there, Curwensville firefighters say a medical van stalled in knee-deep water and they went to roll out a patient who was already on a stretcher.
“The legs on were high enough that it wasn’t a problem to get it out of the water and we loaded him into our ambulance and kept them going,” says deputy fire chief Marc Hatten.
Some Curwensville firefighters had just returned from Milesburg with their boats. They didn’t have to use them, but did go door to door warning residents and walking people out, Hatten said.
On Filbert Street, after three hours running a pump, firefighters moved on. The basement wasn’t draining. The couple next door said it hasn’t flooded here in a decade.
“We have taken everything out of there before this, so there’s very little damage,” says basement flooding victim Ed McCulley.
Meantime, on Anderson Street, more residents had flooded basements.
“I just came home from work and there was a pile of water in the basement,” says basement flooding victim Cody Clyde.
One neighbor dug a trench to divert water. Here, pumping by firefighters worked.
“About 10, 15 minutes, and they got most of it out at that time, and they got all the water away from the furnace,” says basement flooding victim Eric Barrett.
Fire Chief Shawn Fye says about a dozen homes were pumped and there were four stuck vehicles.
Elsewhere in Clearfield County, a tractor-trailer ran off the side of the road near Clearfield during rainy conditions. It happened around 9 a.m. on I-80 near Mile 116 eastbound.
We spoke with the driver who appeared to be okay. The truck was stuck up on the side of the road. There was another trailer in that same area that was apparently from another accident yesterday.
And, on another part of I-80, a mudslide caused problems at the Woodland exit last night. Water was covering part of a ramp this morning, which was blocked off by cones, but a second ramp to eastbound I-80 was clear.