DALLAS, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — Residents and businesses in Luzerne County’s Back Mountain are cleaning up the aftermath of the storm damage as a state of emergency was declared in both Dallas Township and Dallas Borough.
28/22 News was able to obtain images of what the parking lot of Leggio’s Italian Restaurant in Dallas looked like Saturday night.
Owner Lori Leggio says the place was packed with patrons during dinner rush when heavy rain started falling from the sky.
“The bartender is screaming, ‘We’re getting flooded!’ So I was in in my office, I come running out, and the parking lot’s literally underwater within 10 minutes,” said Leggio.
Leggio says it all happened in a flash. Above all else, the safety of patrons and staff was a top priority.
“We’re trying to move employees’ cars, cars are underwater, and then I tell the restaurant, for all the customers, to evacuate, to get their cars out. Literally, it happened within minutes, it was crazy,” Leggio explained.
Workers, friends, and family members helped clean up some of the damage on Monday. The restaurant is closed until further notice.
“It’s just unfortunate. I feel not only bad for us, but the surrounding communities that also got hit. Houses, other businesses up the road,” Leggio continued.
Just a short distance away, a roundabout looked like a river. Pizza Bella was slammed with orders as the flood waters began to rise and they unfortunately closed early for safety reasons.
“That amount of rain, in a short amount of time, everything just filled up so quickly, and nobody predicted that. 90 percent of my staff live in the Back Mountain so I had to make sure that they got home and that my customers didn’t get injured coming to pick up the pizza either,” said Dallas Pizza Bella owner Patrick Cunningham.
There was also a video of flooding at a wedding at the Beaumont Inn in Dallas Township.
A member of the Picture-Perfect Band told 28/22 News that the water rose in minutes and put an abrupt end to the music and dancing.
