MAHONING VALLEY As raindrops keep falling in area, flood-hit residents keep worrying

More than an inch of rain fell on the airport Monday.
By IAN HILL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
Dee Kountz starts to worry when she hears the sound of raindrops falling outside of her Tara Drive home in Boardman.
She goes from window to window, looking at the water sitting in her back yard and wondering if there will be another flood.
"You get knots in your stomach," Kountz said. "It's like a panic."
It's been like that for several local residents since July, when record rains triggered flooding throughout the area.
And even though less rain fell in the area in August, residents say flooding has remained a problem and a concern.
"It's hypertension city, anxiety city," said Alice Gallo of Ayrshire Drive in Austintown.
Statistics
National Weather Service statistics show that a total of 3.32 inches of precipitation fell on the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in August. That's about one-tenth of an inch less than the amount that fell on the airport in August 2002.
"It's actually, for the month of August, pretty close to normal," said Tom King, a meteorologist with the NWS office in Cleveland.
King said a low-pressure system was above the Great Lakes in July, causing cool and rainy weather. Some major thunderstorms also stalled above the Mahoning Valley during the month, he said.
A total of 10.39 inches of rain fell on the airport in July, the second-most ever in a month in recorded weather history. The local record is 10.66 inches in June 1986.
The National Weather Service also states that a total of 31.72 inches of precipitation has fallen on the airport so far this year. That's 6.09 inches above normal.
The record for precipitation in a year is 48.58 inches in 1956.
A bit skeptical
When told that only an average amount of rain fell on the Valley in August, Gallo responded, "that's hard to believe."
She said Aug. 9, Woodside Lake flooded its banks behind her home and flowed into her back yard and a nearby church parking lot. The NWS states that 0.36 inches of rain fell at the airport that day.
Gallo also said there was flooding in the Wedgewood neighborhoods around her home Friday, when 1.32 inches of rain fell on the airport. That was the wettest day of the month.
"We don't know, all of a sudden, where all this water's coming from," she said.
Kountz said that her home became an island when a ditch in her back yard flooded Aug. 9.
"It's sad when you're like a prisoner in your own house," she said, noting that she still has water in her back yard.
King said he expects that the Valley will have a typical September when it comes to the weather, meaning that about 4 inches of rain should fall on the area during the month.
The Valley is already well on its way to reaching that figure, as a total of 1.31 inches fell on the airport Monday.
Kountz said she nervously watched the water rise in her back yard during Monday's storm.
"I just thank God it quit when it did," she said. "The flooding problem has not disappeared, and I don't think it's going to go anywhere for awhile."
hill@vindy.com