University Times

When Pitt staffer Rich Colwell returned from Florida after volunteering with the Salvation Army to help hurricane victims, he knew it was raining. And it was not a good sign when his wife Jean told him to “get his own ride from the airport because water was filling up the window wells in the house.”

Arriving in Pittsburgh on Friday, Sept. 17, Colwell realized that he had followed Hurricane Ivan home. Leaving one disaster for another, Colwell was ready to volunteer again for the Salvation Army to help Pittsburgh residents, but most of the roads were impassable. Come Saturday, Colwell drove a Salvation Army mobile kitchen to Millvale and fed 300 people lunch and dinner.

“Pittsburgh was worse off than Florida,” said Colwell. (See University Times Sept. 16 article). “In Florida, the hurricane tore off roofs, left water, but it dried up and was gone. People could dry out their things,” he said. “Not here. Houses in Millvale had 3-6 inches of mud in basements and 2-3 inches of mud on first floors. The water rose four to six feet on the first floor of many homes – it contaminated everything. There’s sewer sludge in that water — what are you going to do? They had to throw out 100 percent of everything on their first floors.”

Colwell noticed a strong sense of community in his hometown. “The people in Pittsburgh were helping each other; the firefighters and police were helping each other. It was nothing for someone to drop off 20 to 30 pizzas at one of Millvale’s churches. Iron City brought in bottled water. One day a sandwich truck stopped by to give more food.”

A computer services manager in the School of Engineering, Colwell helped local flood victim everyday after work until yesterday, Sept. 29, when the need for services began to slow.