Count on more downpours, floods today

Local Flooding

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Heavy Rain causes flooding downtown and around the city of Youngstown.

By David Skolnick

About 2 more inches of rain is expected in the Valley today.

Here comes the rain again.

There are plenty of other song lyrics to describe the expected weather today.

How about a hard rain’s a-gonna fall?

However you want to put it, expect a few more inches of rain today,

The Mahoning Valley was pelted with as much as 4 inches of rain Wednesday, particularly in the late afternoon and evening, causing flooding and power outages.

Rather than wait until later in the day, the thunderstorms could start as early today as daybreak, stop for a while, and return with full force by late afternoon and early evening, said Jim Kosarik, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

“[Friday] morning until Saturday morning could be active with heavy rain,” he said. “Some of the storms could be severe.”

Portions of Boardman, Youngstown, Austintown, Canfield, Poland, Salem and East Palestine were flooded Wednesday.

But only 0.87 of an inch of rain was recorded at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Vienna. That brought the monthly total to 1.57 inches, making June 2009 one of the driest Junes on record thus far.

About 7,000 electric customers, including 4,000 in Mahoning County, lost power in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys.

Also, a lightning strike hit an electric suspension clamp causing a live electric wire to fall at about 8 p.m. Wednesday.

The caused traffic to be stopped in both directions for about 31‚Ñ2 hours after a temporary repair was made. Ohio Edison workers made a permanent repair to the clamp Thursday.

Many spent Thursday trying to clean up after Wednesday’s rain that caused flooding in their houses and on their streets.

They should be ready to do it again.

“People with flooding problems need to be alert” about today’s rain, Kosarik said.

Boardman and Austintown, two areas that usually incur high water, saw flooding again Wednesaday night.

Boardman Trustee Kathy Miller said she heard from some residents whose basements flooded, but not as many as in the 2003 flooding.

“But the streets I think were worse than in 2003,” Miller said. “Market Street was worse. The St. [Elizabeth Health Center’s] entrance off of Market, you couldn’t get in.”

Larry Wilson, Boardman road superintendent, said a rain gauge outside of the road department measured 4 inches of rain.

Problems were reported in the center of the township as well as its west and east sides. He listed Market as well as U.S. Route 224 near the Boardman Plaza as examples.

“South Avenue by Country Fair, it was high,” Wilson said, describing “water up to their door.”

Crews placed barricades at high-water areas to block motorists from traveling through.

“When you have a flash flood like that, there’s not a lot we can do,” Wilson said.

Boardman learned earlier this year that it will receive federal stimulus funding through the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to address projects designed to address flooding in the township.

Austintown Trustee Lisa Oles said she and fellow trustee David Ditzler spent several hours Wednesday night talking to residents whose homes and yards flooded.

“The Fairview and Wilcox area were completely under water,” Oles said. “Dave went out and checked the retention pond at Immaculate Heart of Mary, and it was half full, so it seems to be working.”

Water that flows into that retention pond is run-off from Norquest Boulevard, she said.

Oles said she attended Thursday’s Mahoning County commissioners’ meeting with plans to speak with someone from the county engineer’s office, but no one was present.

“Our road department is going to sit down with the county engineer’s office” Friday, she said. “We want to see if we can get a quick fix to some of these flooding problems.”

East State Street and North and South Lincoln avenues in Salem became small lakes after the heavy rains.

The Salem Area Chamber of Commerce closed Thursday as workers removed water from the building.

The rains washed mulch from landscaped areas around the intersection that left a brown high water mark about 12 inches high on the chamber’s front door.

Crestview High School in Columbiana had some water that was quickly removed Wednesday evening.

Staff writers Denise Dick, Elise Franco and D.A. Wilkinson contributed to this story.

SEE ALSO: 4 in Canfield rescue man stuck in creek.