Residents leave flooded homes as roads, yards become rivers

Evacuations from low-lying areas and reopening roads are the focus now.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
and JAYME RAMSON
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
Mike Sisic watched gray clouds roll over his Yankee Run Road home, wondering how much longer until the next deluge of rain would hit.
"We were lucky this time," the Brookfield Township man said. "I'm worried if we get any more though, that we might not be so lucky again."
Sisic and his wife, Diane, spent the better part of Tuesday surveying the damage at their trailer, as well as answering the phone, hearing the tales of destruction from their neighbors and families.
The Sisics were one of a number of families forced from their homes Monday night when rain-swollen Yankee Run Creek overflowed across the road. Rescue crews were able to get some people out by truck, but others had to be taken out by boat.
Diane said most of her neighbors are members of the Hackett family, and include her cousins, uncles and more.
She grew up in the area between Lincoln Street and the bridge and doesn't remember it ever being this bad.
She and her husband looked up and down the road, pointing out how high water rose -- as much as a foot in some places -- and where things used to be.
A sandbox floated from the Sisics' back yard to the front, and a neighbor's 500-pound propane tank was washed away.
Pieces of cut wood and a stop sign ended up more than 200 yards from where they were before the storms.
Mike Sisic took the day off work from the road department in Shenango Township, just across the Pennsylvania state line, which also was hit hard.
Tree branches knocked down by high winds lined the sides of Hazen and Leona streets in Sharpsville.
Brian Pollack lives in Sharon, but said most of the damage passed him by. He had recruited two buddies to help him clear away three large trees from his friend's yard at Leona and Victory streets.
"The house belongs to a buddy of mine, and he called and asked me to help him out," Pollack said, adding he'd spent most of the morning using chain saws to cut apart the trees.
The home was not damaged by the falling limbs, despite one tree's being struck down by lightning. High winds uprooted a tree in the back yard, however, tearing up a waterline.
"The way the roots of the tree run, when it came up, it just tore up that waterline," Pollack said.
In Niles
By Tuesday afternoon, police in Niles were helping residents of Buckeye Mobile Home Park on Difford Drive and workers from Fairhaven School evacuate the area.
Hundreds of flooded basements throughout Trumbull County were sending people to hardware stores in droves, looking for any way to get some relief.
"We are selling generators, from big to small; sump pumps are going fast; dehumidifiers -- we had pallets of them and they are going fast," said Bob Beachy, manager of Home Depot in Niles.
To keep up with demand, Beachy was sending employees to other stores as far away as Streetsboro to bring back machines to help people dry out their houses.
"Literally, as they are coming off the truck, we are there to get them and bring them back here," he said.
The store in the Eastwood Mall complex stayed open an extra 90 minutes Monday night.
Officials at the Howland Fire Department said the residents of Dawson Road were experiencing some of the worst flooding in the area.
Residents there said they're used to getting flooded but never as bad as this week.
On dry days, water trickles through a ditch from the top of the street. After hours of rain, large rocks from a nearby creek started flowing down into the yards as the water level increased.
Now, Dawson Road resident Georgette Markey has a river flowing across what remains of her driveway. She has lived there 17 years.
"This is the worst I've seen it," she said. "A lot of people cannot get out of their driveways to go to work or anything."
A few doors down, other distraught residents looked over the damage.
Hard-hit family
Last month, the Webber family wanted to build a deck next to their garage. They went on vacation instead. Now there is a creek flowing through the family's garage.
"I didn't get water in my house, thank goodness," resident Ruth Webber said. "My sub-basement got 3 feet of water and some water seeped into the kitchen. I lost my garage; I lost everything."
When Webber was forced to evacuate around 9 p.m. Monday night, the flowing water was up to her waist as she walked out her front door.
Webber and her husband were told there was no need to purchase flood insurance when they moved onto the street in January 2002. Since then, they've had nothing but problems when the heavy rains hit.
Last July, her dog drowned during a storm. On Tuesday, she noted that they've lost more than 3 feet of land from the flooding and subsequent erosion.
Although Webber and Markey said their situations were bad, they admitted a couple of others had it much worse.
"The guy at the end of the street, his house is in the middle of a lake," Webber said.
Another woman's basement was filled with water that came up to the first floor.
Warren Mayor Hank Angelo released a statement Tuesday afternoon, saying rainfall reached almost 5 inches in parts of the city, with Warren residents' basements flooded citywide.
City crews will be removing fallen trees in the rights of way and streets. Angelo said the main concern was to get the streets opened.
The city Environmental Services Department will collect flood-damaged debris from residents until Aug. 1.
slshaulis@vindy.com
jramson@vindy.com