How Millvale used devastation from Hurricane Ivan 20 years ago to come back stronger, more tightknit

MILLVALE, Pa. — It was meant to be the start of a celebration, but 20 years ago, the remnants of Hurricane Ivan washed away those plans for Millvale.

Two decades later, the community has completely reinvented itself.

Meteorologist Scott Harbaugh spoke with people who lived through the flood about the impact and the rebound.

“I mean, it got nailed. You and I would be...I mean, our heads would be underwater right now. Just to put it in perspective.

Up to 10 feet of water engulfed homes and businesses in Millvale in the wake of Hurricane Ivan. It was just one of the dozens of western Pennsylvania communities devastated by record rainfall for the second time in nine days during September 2004.

But this is a community that was set to celebrate. The opening of the annual Millvale Days was hours away when Girty’s Run quickly came out of its banks and water rushed into the valley from the surrounding hills.

“By 11 o’clock in the morning, I think former Mayor Jim Burns said, by 11 o’clock they knew they were in trouble because of the amount of rain that was backing up over the streets and how the creek was coming up across the walls,” current Millvale Mayor Brian Spoales said.

“By one o’clock we were under eight feet of water,” Burns said. “You could hear the windows smashing within the business district. It sounded like someone smashing with a bat. And all of those wares and that saving and that investment was washed into the Allegheny River.”

Almost an entire town of 4,000 people went underwater for days on end. It was a catastrophic event that could have torn a town apart with infighting, greed and selfishness. But not this town. Neighbors rolled up their sleeves, got to work, and helped everyone.

“Pastor George showed up in my backyard at 1:30 in the morning with pickaxes and shovels and people and said, ‘Alright. What are we doing here?” recalled Brian Wolovich, the board president of Millvale Community Library.

“We served three meals a day for 12 to 13,000 people for over 14 days, and not one item of food was purchased. When you came into the community center – you made a left to eat. You went straight for cleaning supplies, and you made a right to get clothing. And everything was donated,” Burns added.

“All this stuff that’s kind of grinding in our society, that goes out the door. Nobody starts to argue about ‘Does somebody deserve help after a flood?’ And so, we saw an outpouring of different groups and everybody just kind of coming together. And that’s a beautiful thing,” Wolovich said.

Millvale certainly wasn’t rebuilt in a day, but new businesses and new initiatives, like the Millvale Community Library, sprung up over the next several years as a proactive approach to keeping the community together.

“You have one of two choices. You go down or you stay up. And we took that energy and we converted it into continued growth and success,” Burns said.

Over the last two decades, new regulations on development, rain barrels, and hundreds of planted street trees are just some of the efforts that have been made to mitigate mass flooding. But Girty’s Run which cuts through and underneath the borough also looms large, even when it’s just a trickle.

Now, Girty’s Run gets a lot more attention than it did in 2004 because of Hurricane Ivan. Even two decades later, anytime there is heavy rain, people who live along these banks are on high alert.

“It’s still a worrisome event when it rains. If anything is flooded yet, the parts of Girty’s Run where we can actually go in and remove the debris, we’ll do it twice a year,” Spoales said.

Nothing will ever completely end the risk of flooding in Millvale. But the systems in place now are better than in 2004. A tightknit community, made even stronger after recovering from adversity together.

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