West Newton, Westmoreland County recovering from Yough River flooding
By Bob Mayo
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WEST NEWTON, Pennsylvania (WTAE) — As Youghiogheny River floodwaters are receding, the clean-up in West Newton, Westmoreland County, is underway Thursday, with neighbors helping neighbors and friend helping friends.
The Yough had surged and flooded around homes on Collinsburg Road. One of those homes belongs to resident Rick Boyd, who has lived there about 37 years.
“This is my fourth flood,” Boyd said with a smile. “Fourth time.”
“We moved out the night before it flooded because we watched the river gauge, and we knew it was coming up. So I hauled all my furniture out, whatever I had in the basement. So we’re ahead of the game,” Boyd said.
Friends and coworkers are helping Boyd clean up from his flooding that ruined his furnace, air conditioning and water heater.
What is it about his home and river view that keeps him there?
“It’s the price you pay for living in paradise. It is,” said Boyd. “When we’re done working here at my house, we’ll go to the neighbors’ houses and clean their houses out for them.”
Meanwhile, in the basement of the West Newton VFW, members are facing damage left behind by several feet of floodwater.
“It’s devastation. It’s nothing compared to what some homeowners are going through right now, but there’s a lot of work that needs to be done,” Ellen Chapman, a former quartermaster at VFW Post 7812, told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4.
“I’ve never been through a flood before, so I don’t know what the water does when it comes in like that. But it had to have been pretty powerful. And have been able to pick up some of the stuff that it picked up, as heavy as it is.”
The volume and force of flood waters upended things.
“It had to have been at least waist deep. Because it went over the pool table, it picked up a standup freezer and put it on its side,” Chapman said.
VFW Post 7812 director Jerry Chapman said, “The way it moved all our stuff around. I never thought that would happen.”
The VFW uses its basement space to stage breakfasts, meetings, and social events.
“We’re just grateful that in the flood of 2018, they decided to take everything upstairs, the bar and all of our military memorabilia. all of that is upstairs. So all of that is protected, it’s fine. Everything that’s down here can just be replaced and cleaned up,” Ellen Chapman said.
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