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The river conditions that damaged the McKees Point Marina on Tuesday were unusual for this time of year, but not unprecedented, said an official at the U.S. Geological Survey.

"It's not that typical in October, no," said Marla Stuckey, assistant director of the USGS' Pennsylvania Water Science Center, near Harrisburg. "This flood event wasn't an extreme event --- it was a mini flood event --- but we typically see large flooding occuring either in the winter, due to ice effects, or in the summer months."

October is typically one of the lowest months for the Youghiogheny, Stuckey said.

Meanwhile, the facility may have dodged a bullet. Although four docks were heavily damaged by fast-moving water and debris, other docks that city officials feared would break loose survived.

"I think we're very fortunate," Mayor Mike Cherepko said Wednesday night. "I can't believe they made it through the night." An insurance appraiser was scheduled to examine the damage today, he said.

Marina volunteers were in the process of removing the docks when Sandy struck the eastern United States. The marina closed for the season on Oct. 15.

A web search of other marinas around the mid-Atlantic indicated that marinas that close for the season typically close in mid- to late-October. No marinas in western Pennsylvania close before October, said Ray Dougherty, marina manager.

"Most of them stay open year-round, but we can't, because we have ice in the winter," he said. "A lot of larger marinas don't take their docks out in the winter."

. . .

In the wake of Tropical Storm Sandy, the Yough on Tuesday morning spiked from its usual October flow of about 1,000 cubic feet per second to more than 34,000 cubic feet per second. (See the graph at the top of this page.)

The flow was measured at the nearest gauge to McKeesport, upstream in Sutersville.

The fourth dock from the river's mouth --- "Dock D" --- came loose from its moorings at about 10 a.m. Tuesday, damaging docks A, B and C. The farthest dock from the mouth, Dock L, was damaged by a large tree that floated down the river, while Dock K was caught on what appeared to be a tree stump, Dougherty said.

The river was full of large debris as a result of Monday night's storms and localized flooding upstream, said Dougherty, who saw a hot tub and patio furniture floating down the river Tuesday morning.

. . .

It takes volunteers six to eight days to pull in the marina's 11 floating docks, Dougherty said. Had the storm held off another week, most it not all of the docks would have been safely on shore, he said.

There are five docks, lettered H through L, still in the Youghiogheny. When the water becomes less turbulent, hopefully in another day or two, Dougherty said marina volunteers will go out and retrieve those docks.

He's also hopeful that the remains of docks A, B and C can be salvaged.

. . .

The river's flow on Tuesday was unusually high for that time of year, but not an all-time record, Stuckey told the Almanac on Thursday morning.

According to the USGS, the highest flow at that gauge --- 108,000 cubic feet per second --- was recorded in October 1954 when Hurricane Hazel struck the state. That storm killed at least four people in the Pittsburgh area and put the Ohio River five feet above flood stage at the Golden Triangle, according to newspaper reports from the time.

It's a reasonable assumption to say that the increased flow was due to the 5 to 6 inches of rain that hit southern Pennsylvania and western Maryland on Monday night, Stuckey said, but the resulting spike in water levels would not be classified as a serious flood.

USGS data (below) indicates that the water never reached flood stage at Sutersville.

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