Adam Winder and Todd Heckman were among the city employees Tuesday standing in several feet of pooling water.

Flash-flooding occurred around the city due to two storm systems that dumped rain and brought gusts of wind and lightning.

Winder, general manager of city streets and parks department, and Heckman, the city fire chief, said public safety and work crews were handling the mess.

Water was accumulating at corners and across sidewalks. Some basement flooding occurred.

“We need larger pipes to handle the volume of water,” Winder said.

The stormwater systems, which are controlled by the city, were built in the 1950s.

Since then, more development has created parking lots and private development from residential areas north of the city which are getting debris, including roofing material and trash into the systems, Winder said.

Seemingly normal thunderstorms are taking their toll on city properties and taxpayers are paying for it.

Overtime expenses are adding up, Winder said.

He had to put 14 people out for the storm, many of them having to work about four hours more to clean up the mess. That was after some started early in the morning shift.

At City Hall, electrical systems were out and the air conditioning was not working on some floors, driving workers to put on fans to stay cool.

“We need to have residents do what they can to clean catch basins before the storms,” he said.

The department is expected to brief City Council and the administration soon, he said.

In the 1980s, the public work department had as many as 50 workers. Today, the department budget is limited to 26.

Winder said he routinely makes contact with council’s public works committee about the emergency cleanup costs and on equipment purchases and needs.

One purchase, a vacuum truck that sucks out debris from catch basins was equipment that Mayor Gabriel J. Campana wanted to see sold to the Williamsport Municipal Water and Sanitary Authority.

The deal never transpired and the city has the truck for such emergency weather and situations, Winder said.

In addition, the public works and safety workers of the city put themselves in harm’s way, and were out in the rain, wind and lightning cleaning up, Winder said.

The storm damage was so mighty that the emergency operations center at the fire station was activated, he said.

All of these unknown contingencies came up as the city crews were preparing to see thousands of people at tonight’s annual Set the Night to Music Fireworks.

Despite a few places where the orange plastic fencing was knocked over by the wind, Winder and public safety officials hope for the event and fireworks to commence as normal. It starts at 3 p.m. and continues along William and in the Hampton Inn Parking lot until 10:45 p.m.