Flooding forecast for third time in a week
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If you ask the experts at the National Weather Service, they'll tell you that about three times a year, the Ohio River will rise to the point that it creates havoc for Downtown Pittsburgh.
Well, by those statistics, we should be good for the year as of Wednesday.
That's because the weather service expects water to spill onto the Mon Wharf parking area by tonight and to hit the 10th Street Bypass by Tuesday morning. A flood advisory has been issued. And this will be the third time it's happened within the past week.
"I certainly hope so," said meteorologist Lee Hendricks when asked if this flooding event should be the final one for 2011. He works out of the Moon office of the weather service.
According to the weather service, the river was above 16.7 feet at 9 p.m. Sunday. At 18 feet, the parking lot begins to flood. At 22 feet, the 10th Street Bypass floods. The Ohio River is expected to rise past 23 feet by about 7 p.m. Tuesday evening then begin receding, dropping below 18 feet by about 6 a.m. on Wednesday.
River waters created trouble with the wharf parking area on Feb. 20 and on Friday, according to Mr. Hendricks.
While he said he couldn't immediately access the records, Mr. Hendricks said this kind of flooding event would have happened about this time last year.
It's all about foliage and the lack thereof.
"The problem is that all the foliage in the region is dormant,'' he said. Bare trees don't suck up as much water from the earth.
That means that melting snowpacks and rainfall will pour into the already saturated earth such that there's no place for it to go. Rivers swell, then parking lots and low-lying roads get flooded.
"It's a shame. We hate having to tell people this is what's coming. We know what a hassle it is," Mr. Hendricks said.
Things could be worse, though. "Last week, we had a lot of ice that moved out of the area. If that hadn't happened, we could have been facing ice jams," he said.
Today's trouble is being sparked by a fast-moving storm system that tumbled out of the southern plains and was expected to bring more than an inch of rain to the region.
First Published February 28, 2011 12:29 am
