Fawn resident Paul Freshwater spent Thursday morning shoveling 2 inches of water from his garage off Metz Road.

It was only the second time in 60 years that Freshwater remembers storm runoff causing an issue at his property.

“It came down so fast and so hard that you couldn’t see the road,” he said. “My backyard was covered with water coming down from Hunting Hills (Estates).”

Strong storms pummeled the Alle-Kiski Valley late Wednesday, forcing road closures in Fawn, Brackenridge and Harrison.

Dan Selfridge, chief at Fawn Volunteer Fire Department No. 1, said his crew was called out to divert traffic where water rose along portions of Bull Creek Road — but not because the creek overflowed its banks.

“That creek never came over,” he said. “The drains were all clogged with debris. The water had nowhere to go.”

Bull Creek, a state-owned road, was closed temporarily from Metz Road to Bonway auto repair shop but reopened before 9 p.m.

Melvin McNeal, who works for the township’s public works department, spent Thursday morning clearing culverts along Metz Road with a backhoe. By 10 a.m., he had scooped enough bricks, stone and debris to fill the bed of a township truck.

It’s about the fourth time this year McNeal had to tend to Metz Road specifically.

“There’s about 150 acres that drain down to this point, all the way from Ridge Road and around it,” he said.

Liana Lupo, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh, said the area got about 1.25 inches of rain Wednesday evening.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, 1 inch of rain falling over 150 acres of land translates to about 4 million gallons of water.

“It all comes down to this point,” McNeal said. “There’s nowhere for it to go. It’s a constant fight.”

Freshwater said conditions were made worse because of an early afternoon shower. The rain that fell about 1:30 p.m. didn’t have time to run off, he said.

But, as fast and hard as the evening rain came down, it receded just as quickly, Freshwater said.

“It was gone in about an hour,” he said.

Tawnya Panizzi is a TribLive reporter. She joined the Trib in 1997. She can be reached at tpanizzi@triblive.com.