GILBERTON, Pa. — The rain overnight caused a creek to overflow in Gilberton, leaving houses submerged in water.
The sounds of fire trucks and portable pumps filled the air on Main Street in Gilberton as fire crews worked furiously tackle flooded yards.
Heavy rain overnight caused Mahanoy Creek to spill its banks, shocking residents who say they were caught off guard by all the water.
“When I moved here last year, I talked to the person I bought, it's not a flood area. Then I go, look I have my home insurance. It doesn't cover flood!" exclaimed Barbara Pytak.
Pytak moved from a house into a trailer on Main Street.
With less room in her new home, she stored her personal belongings in the garage in her backyard which was starting to take water.
“I lose all of that. I can't even replace it because this is worth nothing,” she said, shaking her home insurance paperwork.
As firetrucks pumped water at one end of Main Street, on the other side, trucks spouted water back into the creek.
Fire crews say they drew a chalk line at the water line to keep track of whether the water was rising or receding.
Four hours later, it wasn’t looking good.
“What we've done in the past is watch, we would put a chalk mark to see where the water would recede to see in fact if we are doing any good,” said Dave Truskowsky, the public information officer for West End Fire and Rescue. “And in this case today, as the day goes on, it gets worse, the chalk line that was drawn about 4:30 is about 5 feet from the current shoreline.”
One fire chief believes the reason the flooding was so extreme was due to clogged pipes for a bridge project on Rt. 924 which sits over Gilberton.
The water rose up and over those pipes and into the neighborhood.
It’s not clear how long fire crews will be working to clear out the water.