Three confirmed dead in Washington Blvd flooding. (Pittsburgh, Liberty: buy, tornado)

[ditchdigger]

A firefighter drowned during a rescue effort in Pitcairn in 97. ( National Weather Service Forecast Office - WFO PITTSBURGH, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania)
Before that, in one of the floods in the Pine Creek watershed above Etna, earlier. I recall at least one man was swept away. I don't believe his body was ever found.

This site (http://pittsburghgeologicalsociety.org/flood.pdf ), references May of 1986 and 1987, which sounds right.

There may have been others, but those are two I recall specifically.

[romstorm]

This was my view of this very strong storm...
Deadly Pittsburgh, PA Storm - August 19, 2011 - YouTube

[romstorm]

I tried to post a video of the storm on here and I keep getting an error so I apologize to everyone if my video did post too many times.

[Benzman66]

Latest update;

Last flood victim is identified

[jimmyev]

Originally Posted by ditchdigger

Must we, as a society, prepare for the worst case scenario for every imaginable worst case of every imaginable thing? Can we really afford to?

The Drug Enforcement Agency does. They ban substances that have the potential for abuse, even if they've never been abused and have never killed anyone. Perhaps roads with the potential for death should be fixed. Even if nothing has ever happened.

The Department of Homeland Security is another one for extreme risk assessment. If there's a one in a million chance that something might happen, they spend millions to avoid it. That would be a much smaller risk than the risk posed by a one in a hundred year flood.

Then again auto accidents kill 43,000 people or so each year. That somehow seems to be an acceptable risk. Maybe dying certain ways is better than others? You're still dead though...

[SteelCityRising]

It's really bizarre how localized that storm was. It's as if Mother Nature just wanted to show we crazy East Enders she meant business! The airport only reported a little bit of rain on Friday.

[Impala26]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

I just got back from a city bike ride. I have to change my opinion on Washington Blvd. I do indeed think this was bad luck. At first I thought there might be something wrong and there still might be, but I feel this storm was totally crazy. I saw amazing debris everywhere, but what shocked me the most is when I was riding on Ellsworth and saw a car that was on the sidewalk. I asked someone, "Did water do that?" He gentleman told me yes and he said there was a car in the middle of the road that was pushed their from water, but was moved. You should have seen this car on the sidewalk. That isn't normal and I have never seen such a thing on Ellsworth. It was next to Winchester Thurston and not even in some valley situation. Bad luck indeed.

I saw said car this evening driving on Ellsworth and had the same OMG reaction.

There was also a ton of debris on Boundary Street to the point that one side of the road was still completely blocked off with wooden barriers.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Impala26

I saw said car this evening driving on Ellsworth and had the same OMG reaction.

There was also a ton of debris on Boundary Street to the point that one side of the road was still completely blocked off with wooden barriers.

My partner was driving home from work from the North Shore to Shadyside during the height of the storm and told me that Ellsworth Avenue was really submerged. He had to find an alternate route home. I, too, saw that car today, and I also saw water coming out of the sidewalk of all things on the SE corner of Ellsworth & Morewood. Boundary Street was a real mess, but at least the city now put up a few saw-horses to deter people from accidentally driving into it.

People outside the East End have no idea just how violent that storm really was. We even closed our store early because we kept on losing power. There's mud everywhere when I'm walking around. On the plus side we should no longer be under any silly "drought watch".

[SteelCityRising]

Four lives lost in Washington Boulevard flash flood are mourned

^ This article was a tear-jerker for me this morning.

[ditchdigger]

It's always sad when innocent people lose their lives. It becomes sad and scary when we ponder the fact that those sort of deadly circumstances could present themselves to any of us, or our loved ones, with no warning.

SCR, did you read this one?

How did the flash floods happen?: Authorities uncertain about approach to fixing problem

It addresses many of the points you'd raised earlier in this thread...