Sia Fouse knew something was up when one of her employees walked up from the first level of her business, The Sia Center in Vandergrift, at around 11:45 a.m. Tuesday.
“I said, ‘Why does it look like something’s wrong?’” said Fouse, owner of the Wallace Street event venue and indoor playground. “She said, ‘Something is wrong.’”
The Sia Center’s kitchen was flooded with 3 inches of water, as was the event hall.
Her business was one of many places that reported flooding in the Vandergrift and Apollo areas Tuesday afternoon.
“We are very busy and have a ton of calls in the Vandergrift area,” a Westmoreland 911 dispatcher said early Tuesday afternoon.
The National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings for Allegheny, Armstrong, Westmoreland and Washington counties Tuesday.
Slow-moving storms dropped up to 3 inches of rain that triggered flash flooding in parts of several Southwestern Pennsylvania counties, a National Weather Service meteorologist said Tuesday.
According to reports from residents, Warren Avenue in Apollo was closed for a time because of flooding on the road.
Sheridan Road in East Vandergrift was closed due to high water and a landslide.
Flooding across roads also was reported in Allegheny Township near Northmoreland Park and on La Bell Vue Road.
By 11:30 a.m., first responders were reporting flooding on Allegheny River Boulevard in Pittsburgh; Freeport Road near UPMC St. Margaret hospital near Aspinwall; and parts of Mifflin Road, which connects Pittsburgh’s New Homestead and Lincoln Place neighborhoods.
The section of Freeport Road, which straddles the border between Pittsburgh and Aspinwall, was “under several feet of water” before noon, dispatchers said.
The storm dropped more than an inch of rain in some areas within a 30- to 45-minute span Tuesday morning, said meteorologist Jason Frazier, who works in the National Weather Service’s Moon Township station.
Numerous calls for flooded basements were being answered across the region.
Fouse said her staff was removing water, with brooms and a vacuum, Tuesday afternoon. She estimated they’d have cleared at least 70 gallons of water as of 2 p.m.
“You would have thought I was managing a swimming pool, not an indoor playground,” she said.
Fouse put a call out on social media seeking somebody to install French drains around her building. She assumes she will need to replace her downstairs’ floor and wall that sustained water damage. She plans to do a fundraiser in the future to cover those costs.
The indoor playground, located on the upper floor of the facility, is OK and did not flood, Fouse said. That will remain open.
People will not be able to book the downstairs event center until July 12.
“We’re getting this rectified very quickly,” she said.
