We’ve seen nearly every kind of weather possible this week in
McKean County – sunshine, flooding and then snow and ice.

“I’m not a Punxsutawney Phil fan,” said Steve Nelson, McKean
County Emergency Management Agency director, on Friday.

“I was really excited on Tuesday when it was 60 degrees
outside,” he said with a laugh.

Nelson said the heavy rains Wednesday and Thursday caused a
significant amount of flooding in the area, but as yet, he hadn’t
heard of any major damage.

“We haven’t had any reports of structural damage to any houses,”
Nelson said. “We need quite a few to qualify for any funding.

“The only problems we’re aware of is in the Eldred area, which
is typical,” he said, explaining the area is low-lying and the
Allegheny River runs through it.

“It’s starting to come down,” he said of the flood waters. “They
were watching some of the houses over there.”

On Friday afternoon, there were several road closures in the
Eldred and Portville, N.Y., areas, and a few in the Smethport and
Crosby areas. The closures included Route 346, Artline Road, Kings
Run Road in Ceres Township, Valley Crossroad, Route 146 south of
Crosby, Route 417 in Portville, Barbertown Road in Portville, and
East Union Street from South First to South Fifth streets in
Allegany.

Cattaraugus County Sheriff Dennis John advised no unnecessary
travel in Portville Friday evening because of the flooding and road
conditions.

In the City of Bradford, Public Works Director Gary Alcock Sr.
said the water problems were pretty much under control on
Friday.

“We had one drain freeze and overflow,” Alcock said. “It opened
itself up with the flow of water. We had a couple catch basins that
plugged. Now we’re trying to keep up with the snow.”

Because of the late start to the winter snowfall, the city’s
budget with salt and sand is still good.

“Budget-wise, we’re under. I order (salt) whenever we need it.
We stockpile it. I just had a 300-ton order come in last week. The
trucks are in pretty good shape and are on the road now.”

He explained the city crews run two shifts to plow during a
storm, as it takes about six hours to plow the 33 miles of streets
in the city.

And while the street crews are doing their best to keep traffic
flowing smoothly through the storm, Alcock said they have already
been working on making some city streets a little smoother,
too.

“East Main Street is starting to get bad between the Eagles Club
and York Street,” he said. “We patch it just about every day. When
the weather’s bad, the cold patch just won’t hold. Half the patch
materials are on people’s sidewalks.”

And, he added, that bad patch of potholes on South Kendall
Avenue near the old Sixth Ward School is on an area of road under
the responsibility of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
– not the city. PennDOT has a toll-free number of 1-800-FIX-ROADS
to report poor conditions.

Meanwhile, the snow was causing some problems for motorists on
area roadways. A tractor-trailer slid off the road on Looker
Mountain Trail around 1 p.m., causing that road to be closed
briefly. A Fed Ex tractor-trailer became stuck on Red Rock Hill of
Derrick Road just after 3 p.m. Foster Township Police and fire
police from Derrick City Volunteer Fire Department assisted at the
scene until the road had to be closed to allow the truck to be
towed.