Mudslide Brings Trees, Debris Onto Baldwin Twp. Road

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BALDWIN TOWNSHIP (KDKA) -- A mudslide brought trees and other debris down onto a Baldwin Township road Thursday afternoon.

The saturated ground is shifting in the backyard of a home in the 600 block of Donaldson Drive.

Part of the hillside in the backyard of the home came down, bringing trees and mud with it.

"I showed up this morning at about 7 o'clock, and there were a couple rocks lying there," Denny Miskevics, of Baldwin Township, said. "Next thing you know, about 7:30, 8 o'clock, more started coming down."

Miskevics says the homeowner on Donaldson Drive was apparently draining a swimming pool before the landslide started Thursday morning, and some of that water partially flooded a tire business on McNeilly Road.

Officials are now trying to empty the remaining water in the pool to lessen the weight on the saturated hillside, and at the same time, they're worried that if there is any additional shifting ground, they don't want the swimming pool itself ending up going over the hill.

Brenda Waters' Report:

"If this is simply a weather condition that caused this -- as it's doing all around the county here, the ground is just so saturated. And that's the problem with tomorrow's rain. Where's it gonna go? Everything is just completely saturated," Castle Shannon Fire Chief Bill Reffner said.

The hillside looks stable, but officials will be keeping an eye on it over the next few days.

There were no evacuations as a result of the mudslide, and McNeilly Road is open in both directions.

Meanwhile, in the City of Pittsburgh, more than half a dozen homes in the Garfield and Spring Hill neighborhoods remain evacuated because of separate landslide. The Red Cross is assisting families evacuated.