BELLEFONTE — The Centre County community worked to clean up this week after Mother Nature dumped up to 10 inches of rain in a two-hour period Oct. 20, forcing hundreds of families from their homes and causing millions of dollars in damages.
The Bald Eagle Valley area, particularly Milesburg Borough, was hit hardest by the deluge.
“You just can’t handle that much rain in that short of a time period,” said Jeff Warren, Centre County Emergency Management Agency director. “This was a very major event, but we’re actually pretty lucky to get out of it like we did. I believe there was just two minor injuries over the course of the entire event. All the first responders did a wonderful job getting out there quickly and making sure people were safe.”
According to Warren, the rain began at about 11 p.m. Oct. 20. By midnight, people began realizing the potential of the storm.
“The forecast was only calling for 2 inches, but we got so much more than that,” Warren said during Centre County’s board of commissioners meeting Oct. 25. “Most places experienced anywhere between 5 and 7 inches of rain, but it was much worse in the Bald Eagle Valley.”
Warren said help came from all across Central Pennsylvania, as hundreds of firefighters and other emergency personnel came to the aid of Centre County. He said 100 boat rescues were performed during the event.
“We’re so lucky to get the support we do from our neighbors,” said Warren. “We had a lot of people that couldn’t get out of their homes because the water was so high, but we had a great group of people out making the rescues, as well as great people in the command center directing them. It was a total team effort through and through.”
Warren said more than 200 private residences were damaged during the weather event and even more experienced flooded basements. Several rural roadways, such as Purdue Mountain Road, were closed because of the damage.
“Although most of the roadways in Centre County are now open, there are still a few that sustained heavy damage and those roads are still deemed unsafe to travel,” said Warren. “Local residents in these areas have access to their homes, but there is no through traffic being allowed to pass.”
Bald Eagle Area High School officials opened the school building to refugees of the storm. There, the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army assisted the displaced families. Donations of food, water and other supplies poured in from Pizza Mia, Valley Diner, Sheetz, Coca-Cola Bottling Co., Pizza Hut and several other local businesses.
Utility services, such as telephone, electricity, water and sewage, has been restored in the affected areas.
Now, according to Warren, it is time to begin assessing the numbers. Although he could not put a finger on an exact amount of damage, he did say he feels damage to infrastructure alone will reach more than $1 million.
“People aren’t making itemized lists of everything they lost, so it’s going to be tough to ever get an exact figure,” he said. “But, it’s important for us to make note of all damages to private and public property. Those numbers are important when it comes to receiving state and federal disaster relief funds.”
Warren said the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, as well as county personnel, have been visiting residents of the affected area to conduct damage assessments. Warren said if any county residents who were affected by the flood have not yet spoken with PEMA or CCEMA, they are encouraged to contact the CCEMA office at (814) 355-6745.
“We’ve taken reports from more than 200 private residents so far, and there’s still a lot more out there,” he said. “We need to know what happened where so we can report those numbers. It’s crucial to secure the much-needed funding we’re going to need to get back on track.”
In addition to collecting damage information, Centre County’s Adult Services offices is gathering resources to help the families in need. Faith Ryan, director of Centre County Adult Services, said case management services will be provided by her office.
“We want to find out what people’s immediate needs are,” said Ryan. “Several of our county agencies, such as the Veterans Office and the Office of Aging, are ready to help residents out, and our local state representative offices are ready to help people who may have lost their identifications or birth certificates, and other documents like that.”
She said families seeking help are encouraged to contact her office at (814) 355-6768, or call the 24-hour hotline at (800) 494-2500.
Mark Ott, president of Howard Fire Company, attended the meeting. He said he was proud to see all the people in the community pitching in to help each other out.
“I’ve seen a lot of people doing a lot of things,” Ott said. “It was crazy to see how powerful water can be firsthand, but we all did last weekend. It sure had a devastating effect on our community.”
Ott said the rains forced the cancellation of the annual Pumpkin Chuckin’ event, which is held as a fire company fundraiser at Howard Dam. According to Ott, the company makes about 30 percent of its yearly budget at the event. This year, however, that money will not be coming in.
“We usually see about 500 tickets to our annual gun raffle at that event, so we’re going to have 500 tickets we’re going to need to sell somewhere,” he said.
In addition, the company has launched a T-shirt sale fundraiser to help recoup some costs.
Two pastors with congregations in the affected area also visited the commissioners’ meeting to offer their help.
Pastor Eric Gerber, of the Freedom Life Church, and Pastor David Merlot, of Runville Church, said they began assisting in the community as soon as they realized the impending dangers of the storm. They visited homes doing whatever they could to help.
“Some folks were completely displaced and many are going to have a hard time moving forward from here,” said Gerber. “We’re trying to go out to as many houses in the community as we can and try to help.”
Gerber said his congregation has established a section of its website, www.freedomlife.tv, to solicit a list of needs from families in the area, as well as provide a place to make financial donations.
Milesburg business owners Cheryl and Jeff Walker began the Helping Other People Excel initiative about four years ago. The couple attended this week’s meeting to let the commissioners know those funds are available now.
“We started this fund for situations just like this,” said Jeff Walker. “Right now, we have $40,000 in our checkbook and we’re ready to spend it.”
Jeff Walker said through the funds, affected families can receive $250 to $500 to help their situation.
“We want to use this money to help people get food and clothes immediately,” said Cheryl Walker. “There’s no red tape to cut through. We can get money into people’s hands right away.”
Donations can be made to the HOPE initiative by contacting jcwalker04@comcast.net. Donations are also being accepted through Interfaith Human Services’ Dislocated Residents Fund at www.ihs-centrecounty.org.
“The county, and in particular, the communities that were affected, are going to be busy for the next several weeks, possibly months, getting things cleared up and back to normal,” said Commissioner Steve Dershem. “But there was no loss of life and there were no serious injuries. I just think that’s phenomenal considering what we went through.”
