Three feet of water was in the basement of the Monongahela Fire Department after Thursday’s rainstorm.
Images posted to the fire department’s Facebook page showed how bad the flooding was. Crews are now in clean-up mode and searching for answers. On Friday, restoration crews tore down drywall and pulled out soaked insulation.
“It was just so quick and fast. We did lose some stuff but nothing too major,” said Monongahela Fire Chief Aaron Leezer. “Absorbent, we use for fire calls, a couple of pumps we lost for pumping water in these situations to help out residents.” The city said the fire department has been dealing with flooding for years and it’s slowly getting worse. City officials are pointing to a collapsed storm drain as the cause. The problem is that the drain sits under a nearby Norfolk Southern rail line.