Ida's Remnants To Slam Pittsburgh Area; Flood Watch Issued

PITTSBURGH, PA — Hurricane Ida was downgraded to a tropical storm early Monday, but the devastating storm's heavy rains will impact Pittsburgh and portions of southwestern Pennsylvania later this week.

The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch from Wednesday at 2 a.m. through Thursday at 2 a.m. for Allegheny, Armstrong, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Washington and Westmoreland counties. The watch also is in effect for portions of east central Ohio and parts of West Virginia.

The weather service predicts rainfall totals of 2 to 4 inches, with locally higher amounts of as much as 6 inches possible. Considerable river and small stream flooding also is possible.

State College-based AccuWeather predicts there is a moderate to high risk to lives and property in the southwestern Pennsylvania flood watch area.

As Ida weakened to a tropical storm, it continued to spread life-threatening flash flooding that is expected to continue on Monday. One person is reported dead, and nearly half of Louisiana is without power, including all of New Orleans.

According to PowerOutage.us, more than a million customers in Louisiana had no electricity early Monday, with another 125,000 customers without service in neighboring Mississippi.

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