‘River of Mud’ Floods Seven Fields Neighborhood

Seven Fields resident Jessica Eisenrich has seen has heavy rains before, but never has it turned her backyard, or her neighborhood, into a brown waterfall of mud.

“The entire street was flooded,” she said.

Eisenrich’s home on Old Mars Crider Road sits directly below the construction site for the , which straddles the borderline between Cranberry and Seven Fields.

During the storm, Eisenrich said muddy water flowed from the 65-acre construction site, which as been cleared of trees, through her backyard and onto the road. Mud also ran down a driveway leading from the construction site to Old Mars Crider Road. 

Video that Eisenrich and her 10-year-old son, Wyland, took during the storm showed waterfalls of mud streaming into their backyard. The flood also washed away much of the family’s gravel driveway.

Pete Eigenmann, who lives on Brookfield Drive at the entrance to the Northridge Estates neighborhood, said Old Mars Crider Road looked like a river of mud during the storm.

“It was brown water everywhere,” he said.

Branches and debris—as well as gravel from the Eisenrich driveway—temporarily clogged the storm sewers along Old Mars Crider Road and the Northridge Estate neighborhood during the storm.

As of 5 p.m. public works crews from Seven Fields were using shovels and a backhoe to clear debris from the area's storm sewers and roads. Several Northridge Estates neighbors also were outside shoveling mud from their sidewalks.

Eisenrich said this is the first time her yard has been flooded since construction began to grade the school site, which is located atop a hill. The high school, which will be able to accommodate up to 1,000 students when opened, is the largest building project the Diocese of Pittsburgh has undertaken in recent history.

A spokesperson for the Pittsburgh Diocese could not immediately be reached Friday evening.The new high school is set to open in time for the 2014-15 school year.

Eisenrich added North Catholic has been a good neighbor so far to her family. 

"We're happy to have the school coming in," she said. "And Seven Fields has always been good about cleaning up the roads."

Friday’s rain comes on the heels of a powerful storm that swept through the area Thursday afternoon. The storm downed trees across the area and for thousands of people, including Penn Power customers in Cranberry, Adams and Jackson townships.

The storm also caused . That slide forced a family from their home as wall of water and mud came crashing into the rear of their residence

As of Friday evening, about 115 Adams Township customers and a handful of Cranberry residents were still without electricity, according to the outage map on the Penn Power website.

Did you witness the “river of mud” during Friday’s storm? Upload your photos and video to this article by clicking the “Upload Photos and Video” button.