Tuesday, July 24, 2018

State of Emergency declared, after flash floods devoured vehicles and homes in Tremont, PA





TREMONT, Pa. -- 


In Tremont, people woke up to water flooding the streets and their homes.

Crews have been working throughout the day trying to pump water out of the area but with more rain expected, they're bracing for the potential of more flooding.

Video sent to us from a viewer in Tremont shows rushing water flowing down Route 125 flooding cars and homes.

"The street washed out. It came down through, and the two culverts here were blocked, and they said it was about three, four foot of water right here in the street alone, and it almost went in the houses. It was ugly. It got bad in a hurry. Within an hour and a half, it came up that fast," said Richard Herb. 

Heavy rainfall caused flooding in several areas of Tremont. Tyler Schaeffer says he woke up to water in his home.

"We came down around 6 and saw there was water on the first floor and pretty much got out from there. The fire company actually picked us up," Schaeffer said.

Firefighters and other fire responders pumped water out of homes.

Tremont's mayor says the flooding destroyed some of the buildings, and he believes Tremont's American Legion Post may have to be condemned.

"We're expected to have a lot more rain coming through. We're expected to have outside agencies from Berks County coming up with a swift water rescue team for this evening's batch of rain that will be coming in sometime this evening," Mayor Ricky Ney said.  

Near South Pine Street, several portions of the road have been washed out and water carried debris through the streets.

This flood reminds many people of the damage left behind by Tropical Storm Lee in 2011.

"I think this one was worse. It really hit hard," Herb said.

As the area braces for more rain and the potential of more flooding, people like Tyler Schaeffer are doing everything they can to remain optimistic.

"Just wait until we hear from insurance and see what they say to do and take it one step at a time, I guess."

The mayor does not know at this point how many people were displaced because of the flooding.

Tremont has emergency shelters set up at its borough hall and at its ambulance garage.


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Schuylkill County slammed by flash flooding, states of disaster emergency declared


by Katie Berlin

Monday, July 23rd 2018



Schuylkill County slammed by flash flooding, states of disaster emergency declared

TREMONT BOROUGH AND PINE GROVE TOWNSHIP, SCHUYLKILL COUNTY (WOLF) —


Water gushes out of hoses along several streets in Pine Grove Township.

"We got a lot of rain in a short period of time," said Mayor Will Shiffer.

They're pumping out what the severe flash flooding left behind... several feet high.

"People that have water in the basement... it's at least 50 or more," said Shiffer.

In nearby Tremont Borough, the damage is just as bad.

"We have at least 35-45 homes that we have to pump basements out. We've already pumped quite a few out already," said Lewis Moyer, Tremont Deputy EMA.

Both communities declared a state of disaster emergency early this morning.

Tremont got its first call for a water rescue around 4:30 am.

"We had three rescues this morning... two people from a house and two people that had to be rescued from their vehicles. They were stranded in water.," Moyer said.

Spring St. has been closed off while crews tread through muck and drain homes.

The brick front wall of one man's house was completely ripped off.

"All the mud comes out of the creek and just lays all over the place. Inside the garage... everybody's garage around here... everybody's muddy. Just thank God it didn't get to the upper part of my house," said Mark Searle; Tremont

And the American Legion Post Post 384 on East Main got his hard by Good Spring Creek... knocking out its basement wall.

It's now shut down, until engineers decide what to do.

"It's just bad. Terrible," said Tim Murphy, who's at the legion every day.

"My house is fine, but where we park our car is all washed out, I had to go get the car out first. Then, you come down here to find all of this damage... now what do we do next?" said Ted Lebo, also with the legion.

Locals in both Pine Grove and Tremont say this is the worst they've seen since the flood in 2011.

While communities are cleaning up from Monday's flash flooding, emergency crews are on standby as they prepare for more heavy rain.

The National Guard brought trucks up.

A swift water rescue team came in from Berks County as a precaution.

And a message from both municipal mayors:

"Help each other out - neighbor versus neighbor - just be aware that if you need some sort of resources, you can reach out to the ambulance station here," said Tremont Mayor Ricky Ney.

"Nobody likes getting all this rain, but we got it, so people have to deal with is, and I think the people of Pine Prove are pretty resilient, I think they're handling it pretty well," said Shiffer.

Both have emergency shelters available.

Tremont has one set up in their municipal building.

The Red Cross has set up shelter in Pine Grove High School.