PubCrawler.com and Hurricane Ivan
posted: September 24, 2004

On Friday September 17, 2004, Hurricane Ivan rained down on the already soggy Pittsburgh metropolitan area. Pittsburgh was rebounding from the drenching it received from a previous hurricane that hit Pittsburgh with over 3 inches of rain in one day just a week before.

Hurricane Ivan was expected to stay south and east of Pittsburgh below I-70 near Washington PA. Meterologists scrambled to alert people of the mid afternoon change of course the storm choose. Most people, use to Pittsburgh's rainy weather proceeded about their tasks like usual through the rain by foot and vehicle alike.

A nice cold front stalled over Ohio fed into Ivan and caused the hurricane to drop huge amounts of rain, breaking the just set rainfall records for the Pittsburgh region. By the time it was all done, Pittsburgh received about six inches of rain with suburban locations receiving as many as eight inches of rain.

We are located within a mile of Carnegie, Pennsylvania, an old evolving mill town redefining itself with new shops and restaurants. Carnegie has been devastated by the massive rainfall and overflowing of the Chartiers Creek. Chartiers Creek flows from Washington County bypassing the also hard hit towns of Bridgeville and Heidelberg then past Carnegie, East Carnegie (where we are located) then to McKees Rocks and finally dumps into the Ohio River.

We lost our new vehicle, which failed earlier in the day due to unrelated electronic issues and which the manufacturer's road side assistance failed to come and tow. We encourage you as a consumer to boycott Land Rover's inferior products as such. We parked the lemon thinking it would be safe at the North Star Chevrolet dealership. North Star lost over 200 new cars which ended up beneath 8-12 feet of water along with our car. Other nearby dealerships and businesses suffered the same uniform destruction. The newly opened Pinball building off West Main Street was massively flooded and resulted in a total loss of rare machines.

By 9PM on September 17, 2004, our car sat submerged under water with the town of Carnegie laying beneath the waters current. At this time various utilities started to fail due to danger and force. The gas company's equipment failed causing blow off of natural gas to fill the air. The electric ceased and total darkness blanketed many square miles of flooded land. With the rest of utilities in tow under water the local Verizon Central Office went offline. The flooding has resulted in a total outtage for the 20,000 customers serviced out of that office - including telephone lines and internet access alike. Of course Verizon being a big uncaring mega business doesn't find the outtage newsworthy enough to put in their online news section or to notify the customers of the estimated date of return. So much for the integrity of their buildings built and reenforced to sustain the idea of Cold War nuclear attacks. The buildings can't survive some flooding. Note to the bad guys: Start using water.

Enough of the ranting. We are back online and we are going to continue to work on stablizing things. Lot's of people lost everything- their possessions, their homes and one person, Dennis Santiago even lost his life. Insurance companies wouldn't sell us or them flood insurance since creek controls including cement retention walls were put in place during the 1960's. So much for insurance, risk and reality.

People need help, compassion and economic assistance to survive the aftermath of this devastation. WTAE-TV here in Pittsburgh has a list of organizations and aid you can provide. Do what you can to help.

We will be updating this page as things change. In the meantime, here are some photos so you can see the magnitude of the destruction Ivan created. Click on the thumbnail to get a larger version of the photo.

East Carnegie - Idlewood Avenue and Pringle Street. Adams residence 09/17/2004 @ 3:00 PM	Route 50- Scott Township / Pizza Torino - Flooded Car - 09/17/2004 @ 3:45 PM	Idlewood Road - East Carnegie near Morange Road - Flooded road with submerged van - 09/18/2004 @ 9:30 PM
East Carnegie - Morange Road at West Busyway - Mud Sludge found everywhere impacted - 09/17/2004 @ 9:30 PM	Scott Township - Bell Avenue - Shot from Noblestown Road towards industrial buildings across creek- water covering railroad tracks - 09/18/2004 @ 2:00 AM	Carnegie - East Main Street - Near Pittsburgh Fence lot - Street Flooded over four feet - 09/18/2004 @ 3:00 AM
East Carnegie - Bell Avenue and Gary Street - AV company's van and other vehicles submerged - 09/17/2004 @ 3:00 AM	Carnegie - Mansfield Bridge - Where Carnegie Police Chief Jeff Harbin and 20 others got stuck during flooding - 09/18/2004 @ 2:00 PM	Carnegie at foot of Mansfield Street Bridge near PNC Bank - Pair Networks owner Kevin Martin stranded Ferrari - 09/18/2004 @ 2:00 PM
Carnegie - Mansfield / West Main Street - Newly Opened Carnegie Fire Department Building Flooded - 09/18/2004 @ 2:00 PM	Carnegie - Mansfield / West Main Street - Abandoned Van littered and flooded by Ivan - 09/18/2004 @ 2:30 PM	Carnegie - Mansfield / West Main Street - The Door to Nowhere - 09/18/2004 @ 2:30 PM
Carnegie - Near West side of Mall Plaza - Several cars damaged by flooding - 09/18/2004 @ 2:30 PM	Carnegie - Mall Plaza area - Large tree pieces washed in by massive flooding - 09/18/2004 @ 2:30 PM	Carnegie - Route 50 / Washington Avenue - A Pine Tree Fallen by Hurricane Ivan - 09/18/2004 @ 3:00 PM
Carnegie - West Mall Plaza - Mansfield Bridge waters continue to recede - 09/18/2004 @ 3:00 PM	Carnegie - Mansfield Street - Verizon Carnegie CO (Central Office) offline from 8-12 feet of flooding - 09/18/2004 @ 3:00 PM