Tim Wagner’s family was getting ready to watch him graduate from Franklin Regional Senior High School on Friday night when stormwater began rushing into their Murrysville basement.
“We’ve never seen it like this before,” Bonnie Rockette-Wagner said.
Thunderstorms roared through the region late Friday afternoon, and flash flooding hammered northern Westmoreland County particularly hard.
Murrysville residents near the confluence of Steele’s Run and Turtle Creek were emptying their basements — and in some cases evacuating their homes — as floodwaters rose starting about 3 p.m. Friday.
[gps-image name=”8574872_web1_gtr-MurrysfloodPV4-060725.jpg”]
Lifesaving efforts
Bud Mertz, Westmoreland County director of public safety, said at least eight swift-water rescue teams were deployed to Harrison City, Murrysville and Export areas for “lifesaving” efforts.
They included checking on folks whose homes were surrounded by water and vehicle rescues.
He said four or five people were rescued from flooded vehicles in the three communities.
No injuries were immediately reported.
Murrysville Medic One released a statement on Facebook reporting that water rescue teams “rescued two elderly females from a car submerged in water on Pleasant Valley Road.”
The statement went on to say that 95 residents were evacuated in short period —with many of them expected to graduate from high school that evening.
Mertz met with Murrysville and Export emergency management coordinators and was going to meet with Harrison City’s EMC after providing the update shortly before 9 p.m.
“To me, it just seems like a (weather) system just stalled over top of the area,” Mertz said. “We’re going to work over the weekend doing damage assessments to see if this qualifies for any federal or state assistance.”
Mertz said there were multiple roads closed due to flooding with water appearing to recede around 8:30 p.m. It was unclear when roads would reopen.
Bonnie Rockette-Wagner said it started raining around 3 p.m., “and it actually went to flooding pretty quickly.
“We didn’t get the flood alert until it was already too late. I looked out the window and saw the water all the way up to our neighbors’ house.”
Storm water floods homes along Hills Church Road in Murrysville on Friday afternoon. See more at https://t.co/2BFry8B6HL pic.twitter.com/7k1L412QqK
— Patrick Varine – Tribune-Review (@VarineTrib) June 6, 2025
The family began grabbing things from their basement, which quickly began to flood. Tim Wagner quickly switched off the electricity.
Firefighters, power crews and others were out in force to address flooding and power issues. A flood watch remains in effect for the area until 8 p.m. Friday night.
A significant stretch of Old William Penn Highway, from Hills Church Road to at least Van Buren Street, was closed because of flooding.
Local first responders were joined by crews from Westmoreland and Armstrong counties, Murrysville, Penn Township, Greensburg and North Huntingdon who helped block off roads and retrieve people left stranded by the flooding, said Murrysville police Chief Tom Kusinsky.
“They’re doing a great job,” he said. “They’re getting it done.”
Residents of the Georgetown Commons housing complex and Brookdale senior care home, as well as customers of Ginny’s Neighborhood Pizza Joint got caught in the flooding, Kusinsky said.
Turtle Creek has not flooded this severely since 2009, Kusinsky said.
“The storms just kept coming this way, right in this valley,” he said, pointing down Old William Penn Highway in the direction of Murrysville.
“And it never stopped raining until probably about 6. It just rained and rained and rained.”
It would take at least a few hours for the flooding to fully recede, Kusinsky said around 7:30 p.m.
Water rescue teams that were on standby for Westmoreland County were being released shortly before 8 p.m.
Man reaches house by boat
Anthony Packer was driving home from work Friday afternoon when the flooding alerts buzzed through on his phone.
Packer lives in a townhouse along Old William Penn Highway. Flooding from nearby Turtle Creek reached halfway up his garage door.
He was hopeful he would be able to retrieve his 2-year-old Bernedoodle, Finley, by walking down the Westmoreland Heritage Trail and crossing a low point of the flooding.
“Just walking back the trail, that whole stream is just absolutely blown out,” he said. “And we tried to walk across, but that wasn’t going to happen.”
A swift-water rescue team took Packer to his home by boat to collect his four-legged friend.
“The entire stairwell is just completely trashed from it,” he said of the flood damage in his home.
Why it happened
National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Modzelewski said a long east-to-west storm front spent most of the day generating thunderstorms north of the region.
“The afternoon had some ‘outflow down-breeze’ — kind of a miniature cold front that interacts with the unstable warmer air,” Modzelewski said. “It can cause some localized thunderstorms that will sort of sit over an area.”
The weather service’s flash-flood warning issued Friday was for a relatively small slice of northwestern Westmoreland County, running west toward Trafford and southern Monroeville.
[gps-image name=”8574872_web1_gtr-MurrysfloodPV2-060725.jpg”]
Elsewhere in the region
Several Monroeville roads were closed according to PennDOT officials. They included Route 48, between Haymaker Road and Wall Avenue, due to flooding and downed utilities.
Monroeville police said part of Abers Creek Road was closed due to flooding and was expected to be closed throughout the evening.
Another section of Route 48, Jacks Run Road, closed between Lincoln Way and McKee Road in White Oak because of a landslide.
Other regional closures include Old Route 119 near Fosterville Road in Hempfield, Route 51 between Crane Avenue and I-376 in Pittsburgh, and Electric Avenue between Route 30 and the Tri-Boro Expressway in North Braddock and East Pittsburgh.
Flooding happened fast
Ray Stokes of Murrysville was working at the Airbnb he operates just off the Westmoreland Heritage Trail in Export when it began raining.
“Less than an hour later, I got video of stormwater just pounding the Export flood control culvert,” he said.
Stormwater pounds the Export Flood Control culvert during heavy rain on Friday afternoon pic.twitter.com/lTxxCA5myY
— Patrick Varine – Tribune-Review (@VarineTrib) June 6, 2025
The flood-control culvert diverts heavy rain to an underground tunnel beneath downtown Export and prevents Turtle Creek from overflowing in the borough.
Stokes said Steele’s Run had already overflowed its banks when he got back to his house on Hills Church Road and began warning drivers to turn around.
“I’m probably the last person who was able to cross over from Helltown Brewing (at the intersection of Old William Penn and Hills Church Road),” he said. “I’ve lived here 25 years, and I’ve seen Steele’s Run get high in the past and fill up that valley. But it hasn’t done that in quite some time.”
Down the street, Tim Wagner Sr. was walking Hills Church Road in his bare feet, watching about 5 feet of water wash through the neighborhood’s backyards on its way to Turtle Creek.
“I think we might just head to graduation and try to forget about this for at least the next few hours,” he said.
Duquesne Light reported 3,030 customers, including more than 2,950 in Allegheny County, were without power as of 8 p.m.
About 20 customers in both Beaver and Westmoreland counties were without power.
West Penn Power reported fewer than 950 customers were without power as of 8 p.m.
West Penn’s outage map showed several Allegheny County communities with fewer than 20 people out of power, and more than 20 people without power in the Greensburg and New Stanton areas.
Video of flooding along Turtle Creek in Murrysville, courtesy of @QuinceyReese — swift water crews have rescued drivers and homeowners after flash flooding pic.twitter.com/xr0c628LOO
— Patrick Varine – Tribune-Review (@VarineTrib) June 6, 2025
Medic One said the swift-water rescue teams that responded were from North Huntingdon’s Team 212, Westmoreland Team 175, the Greensburg Fire Department, Lower Kiski, Armstrong County and Monroeville.
Patrick Varine and Quincey Reese are TribLive staff writers. Patrick can be reached at pvarine@triblive.com. Reach Quincey Reese at qreese@triblive.com.
