Mount Joy businesses assess damages after flooding, disaster declaration in the borough

Officials from Mount Joy declared a disaster emergency this week after flood water ravaged the area, bringing more than seven inches of rain water, and overwhelming storm drains.

Fire crews say they saw up to five feet of water in some peoples homes, including structural damage reported in some local businesses.

Little Chiques Park, one of the hardest hit areas, is now working to recover.

Kyra Kauffman, who works at Gus' Keystone Family Restaurant says she's never seen flooding this intense.

"As far as the flooding around the Weis down here, I've never seen that. I've lived here my whole life. I've never seen that before like that was that was very odd," said Kauffman.

Kauffman also says water collected in a flood basin near West Main Street, but had poured out of the right-hand side -- flooding Schatz Garage, just next door.

CBS 21 spoke with the owner of that garage, Gary Schatz, today about the damage.

He says the flooding reached up to 10 feet in his garage and will cost him an estimated $200,000 in equipment and lost revenue.

"It was fast you weren't gonna stop it and all we could do is protect our electronics and protect our customers and protect our employees," said Schatz.

So far, the borough's assistant manager says that they were not aware of any reported injuries from last night.

"2018 was worse, but with the mud this time has made a whole 'nother option that we didn't count on and it was dangerous this morning at 5 o'clock when I'm coming in when I saw the water recede I almost fell right on my head. I mean it was it was slippery. It might have been an ice rink," said Schatz.

Aside from structural damages, for many yesterday, travel was another hurdle.

"The problem I mainly had was when I left here yesterday. It was a lot of rain very very quickly very very heavy, so coming down through town you could feel it, you could feel it underneath your tires. It was starting to get deep and I just wanted to get home," said Kauffman.

The Mount Joy Fire Department said they were called to over 16 water rescues throughout the day.

Manheim Borough officials say they also had fire companies going out to homes to help people get the waters out of their basements — receiving more than 30 requests.

"Everybody was great. Acted very quickly. I feel like they closed roads down that needed that were dangerous and needed to be closed as quickly as they could for our local police department-- fire department-- EMS services. Everybody seemed to be very on point with what was going on, so you know it didn't -- I think it kept everything as low as possible," said Kauffman.