According to Accuweather, Blair County is under a flood watch until 8 a.m. today, Thursday, April 4. Department of Emergency Services Director Mark Taylor said it’s going to be a while before the excess water clears out.

The county experienced generalized flooding throughout a lot of areas, but Frankstown Township was hit the worst, Taylor said.

“There’s several homes that they can’t access by the highways that they normally do because of all the road closures,” he said.

Frankstown Township Manager and Chief Administrator Henry Fownes said the Juniata River’s height was higher than average. As of 2:30 p.m., the river had risen to over 15 feet, three feet above flood stage, he said.

A pickup truck driver goes through deep water on Reservoir Road south of Tel Power Road on Wednesday morning. Residents of Rolling Hills Estates are seen investigating the flooding of their exits. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

Fownes said residents of Rolling Hills and Rolling Hills North housing developments, which are near the intersection of River Road and Reservoir Road, were restricted access to their properties.

“They were blocked in,” he said. “When you came out of the developments, the roads were closed to your left, right and to go forward.”

Lock Mountain Road was closed and portions of West Loop Road were impassable for periods of time but have since reopened to traffic, Fownes said.

In Logan Township, Emergency Management Coordinator Jeff Blake said officials received four calls for basement flooding in the Lakemont area.

“I have been cautiously optimistic through this,” Blake said. “While there have been some residential issues where folks had water in their basement, Lakemont Fire Department was out several times to assist residents in their fire district. They did a wonderful job at answering those calls.”

The driver of a lifted pickup truck traverses Reservoir Road south of Route 22, which was strewn with debris and waves along the berm on Wednesday morning. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

He said the highway department crew was out all day clearing clogged pipes and any troubled spots that were reported by residents.

“They corrected anything that has been found or reported to the best of their ability,” he said, adding the rain has “been nothing more than a nuisance at the moment.”

“This has been very manageable for most people. I would consider things that have occurred in the township to be very minor in nature,” Blake said. “This was a rainstorm. It was a storm that I think was predicted well.”

Williamsburg Emergency Management Coordinator Steve Lane said the area also received a lot of minor flooding and had a couple of roadways closed.

“There’s basements flooded, but there’s no sense of pumping them because when the water goes down, so will their basement,” he said.

Officials in other counties, like Huntingdon and Cambria, were also swamped with reports of basement flooding.

Huntingdon County Emergency Management Director Katie Unger said Huntingdon County had “widespread flooding from the whole way of the southern end of the county to the northern end of the county.”

“It’s all just basement floodings so far,” she said, adding volunteer fire companies have assisted residents with their flooding basements throughout the day.

Cambria County Emergency Management Agency Deputy Director Art Martynuska said there were no reports of severe flooding in Cambria County.

While not severe, there were a number of basements flooded, he said.

“We have a lot throughout the northern part of the county, but we have some in the southern part as well,” Martynuska said.

Later in the afternoon, the Department of Transportation announced the closing of Route 53 between Portage and Lilly after water eroded the soil under the road, causing portions of the shoulder to fall away.

The damaged section of the route is about 1,500 feet north of the Route 53 and Route 164 intersection near Plane Road. There is no timetable for reopening the road, state officials said.

Schools impacted

Hollidaysburg Area School District operated on a flexible instruction day and postponed its elementary band concert to April 16, according to posts on the district’s Facebook page.

According to Ben Caldwell, the district’s director of human resources and transportation, since the flooding significantly worsened, Frankstown Elementary School was inaccessible Wednesday.

“Most of the roads in and out are closed officially right now and have been since sometime last night,” he said. “Many of our bus routes would be unable to run, so given all of those things, we made the decision to shut down the whole district.”

The National Weather Service was predicting the rainstorm would end Wednesday afternoon. After that, the water should start receding.

Caldwell said school officials have had discussions about whether Frankstown Elementary will be accessible for students to return to school today. The district announced there would be a two-hour delay this morning.

“We’re hoping to see water levels go down overnight,” Caldwell said. “We don’t know if it’ll be going down enough, but we’re hopeful.”

The Bellwood-Antis and Tyrone Area school districts also dismissed students early Wednesday due to flooding in the area.

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.