Heavy thunderstorms rolled through the area Wednesday, wreaking havoc in local municipalities, particularly Fawn and Harrison.
In Fawn, Bull Creek Road was flooded for a considerable stretch in the vicinity of Iron Bridge Road. There was a report of a house that in that area having 5 feet of water in the basement.
The road also was closed between Metz Road to the Bonway auto repair shop but reopened before 9 p.m. – at least temporarily, said Joel Lampasi, deputy chief of Fawn Volunteer Fire Department No. 1.
“If the rain comes back like they expect, we’ll have to close it again,” he said.
Bartley Hollow Road was also closed to Bull Creek Road, he said, but was reopened “for the moment.”
In Harrison, Springhill Road was closed for more than an hour between Lawton Street at top of the hill down to Vine Street.
Emergency crews were called to Highlands High School on Pacific Avenue in Harrison for road flooding. Hilltop Hose secured the school entrance where a wire was down from the rain that pummeled the area from about 6 to 7 p.m.
Chief Jeff Balog said the entrance would remain off-limits to traffic until the utility company was able to repair the wire.
Elsewhere in Harrison, traffic lights were out at Freeport Road and Montana Avenue. The intersection was blocked at Broadview Boulevard. Freeport Road at Idaho Avenue was limited to one lane for flooding.
Liana Lupo, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh, said Harrison got 1.23 inches of rain between 5 and 8 p.m.
Allegheny County dispatchers confirmed lightning struck a house just about 6:45 p.m. along Stonecrest Drive in West Deer.
Lupo said Freeport got about 1.28 inches of rain and New Kensington got 0.27-inch.
“We’re not quite done yet, but the line that just moved through should have been the hardest punch,” she said around 8 p.m.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for Westmoreland County through 10:15 p.m. and Allegheny and Butler counties through 10:45 p.m.
The group posted to social media, saying they’ve received multiple reports of “funnel” clouds across the Pittsburgh region. However, the post said that the sighting are not funnels, rather low-hanging scud along the shelf cloud.
Lupo said scattered rain was expected overnight and into Thursday.
Tawnya Panizzi is a TribLive reporter. She joined the Trib in 1997. She can be reached at tpanizzi@triblive.com.