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<br />93 <br /> <br />initially portrayed. However, once the <br />releases portrayed the severe nature of <br /> <br />not <br />.,..usequent <br /> <br />Summer <br /> <br />Pine Creek Flash Flood in Pennsylvania <br /> <br />Synopsis. On May 30, 1986, a stationary thunderstorm dropped up to eight <br />inches of rain in a little over two-and-a-half hours over a small portion of the <br />North Hills area in metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The resultant flash <br />flood down the Little Pine Creek claimed nine lives. The basin area of Little <br />Pine Creek is just 6.1 square miles. All the deaths were car-related; victims <br />were traveling along a thoroughfare paralleling the creek. <br /> <br />1986 Little <br /> <br />The May <br /> <br />Analysis. Rainfall associated with this event was highly localized. Automated <br />rainfall reports were available from the Integrated Flood Observing and <br />Warning System (IFLOWS) to the local Weather Service Forecast Office <br />(WSFO), but none of these were in the immediate area of the event. Only a <br />limited amount of radar rainfall estimates were available to the forecasters in <br />real time due to the proximity of the ground-clutter pattern. Vague reports of <br />flooding were received in the office, but attempts to pin down the degree of <br />flooding were unsuccessful. A flash flood warning was issued about one hour <br />after the extreme flooding began on Little Pine Creek, based on scattered <br />reports of flooding. <br />The flash flood warning received excellent dissemination over the <br />Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) , however, no radio stations interviewed <br />could recall broadcasting information contained in the special weather <br />statements about the possibility of flooding. The local NOAA Weather Radio <br />(NWR), which was not operational during much of the day, was restored to <br />low power by late in the afternoon. Eye witness accounts of the flash flood <br />indicated at least three of the nine-flood related deaths occurred when victims <br />climbed on top of their vehicles to evade flood waters rather than leaving <br />their vehicles for higher ground <br />