Frank Matis, who’s witnessed amazing crises as a firefighter, an emergency dispatcher and a former longtime director of Butler County’s Emergency Services, said, “Ivan was the most challenging event I dealt with in my entire career.”

Technically, it was just remnants of the 2004 hurricane that reached this county on Sept. 17. And technically, it was just rain.

But Matis, who is retired, said the damage to this county was intensive, widespread and enduring. There were tens of millions of dollars worth of damage to hundreds of homes and businesses.

“I worked for 16 days straight without a break, 12 to 14 hour days,” said Matis, who at that time was responsible for coordinating the response from firefighters, water rescue teams, ambulances and aid agencies such as the United Way of Butler County and the Red Cross. He also visited the damaged areas, pitched in when needed and answered 911 calls.

Matis recalls the event beginning with a warning call from federal officials Friday morning, saying heavy rains were coming.

By mid-afternoon, Matis was on the phone with the county commissioners getting the county to declare an emergency disaster.

“It was like someone flipped a switch around 2 p.m., and the entire (911 call) board lit up,” Matis said.

The county at that time had five dispatchers. Records say they took more than 500 calls the first day alone.

The rain came flooding houses, making roads impassable and trapping people in their homes. At one point, it took a boat to maneuver Main Street in Evans City. About 16 municipalities were significantly affected.

Parts of the county got up to 6 inches of rain in less than 24 hours.

Ultimately, Butler was one of a laundry list of counties in the region to be declared a disaster by federal officials.

The designation made recovery a little easier, Matis said. For example, purchases of sand bags could be made without the normal bidding procedure. Abandoned cars could be towed without sending out all the normal warnings.

Also, the declaration freed up federal loan and grant money.

But once the water started subsiding, a mountain of paperwork grew for county officials such as Matis.

For state and federal programming, every affected property had to be assessed, documented and categorized; “minimal damage, significant damage or destroyed.”

And there was trash. Matis said as one Dumpster of personal items destroyed by mud and water was hauled off, another filled just that quickly.

However, Matis said there was a different, positive wave the surprised and enlightened him.

“So many people wanted to make donations or volunteer to help,” Matis said. “People would call (911) and say, ‘Hey, I can clean a basement or something.’ And I mean a lot of calls like that. Not just one or two. It was surprising and amazing. People just wanted to help.”

Afterward, the county formed a community version of a national organization called Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster to coordinate efforts in times of widespread need. It likely would have happened anyway, Matis said, but Ivan pushed it to the forefront.

Matis, who also served 25 years with the South Butler Volunteer Fire Department, retired in 2012 from the emergency services and now works part time directing calls to the PA 211 Southwest free human services hot line.

But Matis’ replacement at the county emergency center, Steven Bicehouse, also was intimately involved with rescue and recovery events of Hurricane Ivan in his role with the Evans City Fire Department. At that time, he was a captain with the department.

“We rescued people from houses and cars that had driven into standing water,” Bicehouse said. “We never thought Breakneck Creek could get that bad. But it did.”