Published Saturday, August 17, 2002
Valley View roof
Herald Staff Writer
Downtown Sharon and surrounding areas were more like water world after a storm hit around 8:15 p.m. Friday, flooding streets, homes and businesses and taking down the roof at Valley View Antique Mall and Expo Center in Brookfield.
Sharon firefighters and police were called to barricade streets to keep drivers away from waterlogged areas at Sharpsville Avenue, Bank Street, Tamplin Street, North Water Avenue, and parts of East State Street.
Firefighters said computers were floating in about 2è feet of water at the Keystone Blind Association on Dayton Way in Sharon. Firefighters said water pooled up on Sharpsville Avenue ended up on Dayton Way, causing damage to the Blind Association building and creating a huge pond in the parking lot of Day Cleaning Solutions, where firefighters cleared a backed-up drain.
Along the Shenango Valley Freeway, logs from Pine Hollow near the unfinished Oakland Avenue Viaduct were washed onto the road and some vehicles were stuck there, according to witnesses.
"The water was above the running boards of my Land Cruiser right near the Shenango Cycle Shop on Sharpsville Avenue at the bottom of that steep little hill, right before you get to the freeway," said Dave Claus of South Pymatuning Township. "Literally if you had a kayak, you could've kayaked down the freeway."
Claus said his brother John Claus had major damage at his home at 199 E. Budd Street when the water rushing down the hill took out a basement wall. Sharon firefighters responded to the structural collapse soon after the rain started.
Farrell firefighters and Southwest Regional Police were called to keep an eye on manholes that lost their covers when water overwhelmed the sewer drains around Broadway Avenue, Roemer Boulevard, and Idaho Street.
The weight of rain water collapsed a 50-by-60-foot section of the roof of the Valley View building. Once the roof started to collapse, it broke all the four-foot sprinkler pipes and added to the flooding, according to Brookfield fire fighters.
Mercer County 911 center was swamped with calls concerning flooded basements, flooded roads, downed trees and lightning strikes in the valley, but a 911 supervisor said there was next to nothing in the way of storm damage outside of the valley.
The storm took down some trees and branches and lightning strikes sparked some reports of fires, but none could be confirmed Friday. Penn Power spokesman Randy Coleman said there were no significant power outages.
By 11 p.m. the worst of the storm was over. A flood watch remained in effect in Mercer County until early today.