MAHONING, SHENANGO VALLEYS Heavy downpours leave areas flooded

The forecast calls for more scattered storms today and Monday.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
When Misty Matheney woke up from a nap early Saturday evening, she must have thought she was having a nightmare.
"I looked out the window and this is what I saw," she said, pointing to the parking lot behind her Boulevard Club apartment building on West Boulevard in Boardman.
"All these cars were under water. You could barely see the tops of some of them."
Saturday's pounding rain left the Mahoning and Shenango valleys drying out this morning.
Again.
A heavy two-hour downpour on an already-soggy region Saturday night left widespread flash flooding and power outages just about everywhere before subsiding into a steady but softer rain about 9 p.m.
Reports from some areas had water as deep as 4 feet.
Paul Baker looked out a window of his third-floor apartment at Boulevard Club and saw water rising past the tires of his 1997 Chevrolet Cavalier, which was parked alongside his building.
By the time he got outside and moved it to higher ground, water already had poured in through creases around the doors, covering the floorboards and soaking his seats.
"Looks like I'll be getting a new one," Baker said as he used a small plastic cup to bail the water out.
They've seen it before
It's the second time the West Boulevard apartment complex has been ravaged by weather.
Lower-level apartments were flooded in late July, said resident Chris Scott.
"They just put new carpeting in our apartment a week and a half ago. Now this," he said. "We're trashed again."
"Even the swimming pool is under water," said Don Schlegel, whose apartment and car stayed dry.
There were reports from several locations of cars nearly submerged.
The annual Italian Festival in downtown Warren and the Mahoning Valley Scrappers baseball game at Cafaro Field in Niles were rained out.
With Valley residents still cleaning up and seeking financial help for damage from flooding the past several weeks, the National Weather Service forecast called for continuing scattered thunderstorms today and Monday before clearing Tuesday.
A police dispatcher in Youngstown was heard on scanners calling for officers who wanted to stay on duty on overtime and warning them to avoid Interstate 680 between Market Street and South Avenue because of the danger of flooding out their cruisers in high water.
Many parts of the city were impassable, at least for a few hours after the storms struck.
Other flooded areas
"Austintown has streets that look like rivers," said Walter Duzzny, Mahoning County Emergency Management Agency director.
"Manhole covers are being blown off by the pressure of all the water running through the storm sewers."
Duzzny lives in Austintown.
The Trumbull County 911 center reported 3 feet of water on Chestnut Ridge Road in Hubbard Township and "power out everywhere."
The Columbiana Sheriff's Department reported "a lot of flooding," and the Lisbon Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol said there was high water on state routes 344, 45 and 14 in the Salem/Washingtonville/Leetonia corridor.
In Pennsylvania, the Lawrence County 911 center reported Aiken Road in Shenango Township closed by flooding.
Mercer County reported a lot of water.