Michelle Starry had been doing laundry in her basement and had come upstairs before the water started rushing in. Within moments, water was rushing into her Derry Township home, and she and her partner Chris Lynch barely had time to grab their dogs and get out as the foundation began to shift.
The collapse happened on September 12 at the couple's home off Ligonier Street in Derry Township, according to CBS News. Lynch said the front foundation pieces were simply gone, with water rushing straight into the house. Starry had returned home from vending at a local festival with Lynch shortly before the flooding hit, and the pair say they gathered their dogs and escaped the house just as the foundation began to shift.
A Night of Rapid Rising Water
The timing lines up with an official warning: the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh issued a severe Flash Flood Warning for Westmoreland County that evening, cautioning that torrential rainfall was producing rapidly rising floodwaters across local municipalities, according to the Global Incident Tracker. It wasn't the first bout of severe weather to hit the area that month. Westmoreland County and neighboring Latrobe had already been battered by storms on Thursday night, September 3, 2026, which triggered widespread power outages, downed trees, severe basement flooding, and calls for flood cleanup kits, as reported by TribLIVE.
Starry said she was blessed to get out in time, and she left the condemned house with nothing, per the station's report. Lynch said he was simply grateful no one was injured. Derry Township has since condemned the house, and the couple is now staying with a relative in nearby Latrobe, living out of suitcases while they sort out what comes next.
Condemnation Follows State Safety Rules
Derry Township's move to condemn the property reflects a legal obligation rather than a discretionary choice. Under Pennsylvania's Uniform Construction Code, municipal building code officials are required to issue an immediate vacate order whenever water damage or structural instability renders a building unsafe for habitation, according to the code cited by Law.Cornell.Edu. Township authorities can also formally record the condemnation with the county Recorder of Deeds, creating a public record that affects the property's title and liability, per the Municipality Condemnation Order Act of 2020 as outlined by Justia.
Derry Township itself operates without comprehensive municipal zoning, relying instead on individual township ordinances and the state's Uniform Construction Code to govern building safety and land use, according to TribLIVE. That regulatory structure shifts much of the oversight for land development and earthwork onto state environmental and construction standards rather than local zoning boards.
Insurance Gaps and a Lingering Mystery
Starry and Lynch say nothing like this had ever happened to them before, and they told CBS News they still do not know exactly what caused the flooding. The couple suspects that recent groundwork on a hillside across from their house may have diverted water toward their property, though that remains their own suspicion rather than a confirmed cause. Pennsylvania's Storm Water Management Act of 1978, known as Act 167, requires land developers to design earthwork so that post-development runoff does not exceed pre-development conditions or damage neighboring properties, according to the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
Compounding the couple's uncertainty is the insurance landscape they now have to navigate. Standard Pennsylvania homeowners policies, including typical HO-3 forms, explicitly exclude damage from external flooding and groundwater seepage, meaning homeowners must carry a separate flood policy to be covered, per the Pennsylvania Insurance Department. That gap catches many homeowners off guard, since roughly 90 percent of flood damage reports received by the National Weather Service in Pennsylvania come from properties outside FEMA's officially designated 100-year floodplains, according to the same state insurance data.
Even for those who do carry federal flood coverage, the payout may not be enough. FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program caps structural building damage claims at $250,000 and requires separate personal property coverage for belongings that can't be recovered, according to FEMA.gov. For now, Starry and Lynch say they're focused on figuring out their own insurance situation, coordinating with inspectors, and determining their immediate next steps.
Community Support and Available Resources
The couple told CBS News they've received support from others as they work through the aftermath. Westmoreland County regularly allocates federal Community Development Block Grant funds to local human service agencies, including Westmoreland Community Action and Union Mission, to help residents displaced by structural housing emergencies, according to county records. It's the kind of resource that displaced families like Starry and Lynch may be able to lean on as they figure out where to go from here.
The Derry Township incident underscores how quickly rising water can threaten a home's structural integrity.
