And the Rains Came!
WORST NATURAL DISASTER IN A LIFETIME
Although Tower City and Porter Township, except for Sheridan, suffered less damage from water than many of the other surrounding towns in Pennsylvania, the people still experienced the worst natural disaster than anyone can remember ever experiencing in his lifetime.
Even Hurricane Hazel in 1956 did not pour the amount of water into this valley that Hurricane Agnes did last week.
Wiconisco Creek had overflown its banks, gone over the bridge, and traveled about a hundred feet into the fields nearby. People spent 12 to 14 hours bailing water by the bucketfuls out of their cellars, only to fight a losing battle as the water continually seemed to be rising. Fire companies, Tallman’s Supply, J. H. Deiter and Sons, and anyone else with an available pump was kept busy throughout Thursday and Thursday night to help people whose cellars were full of water.
The rain began already Saturday at intervals, but heavy downfalls all day Wednesday saturated the ground and Thursday morning found flooded areas throughout most [of] the valley.
Although the streets of Tower City overflowed above the curbs Thursday, by Friday morning even the creek waters had receded and streets in Tower City were passable except for places where large stones had washed down off the mountain roads.
The story in Sheridan, however was different. Large equipment worked around the clock to keep the roads clear of the silt which had gushed down from the high banks to the north of the town. People in Sheridan had no yards, and many of them were shoveling the black wet dirt from their kitchens, patios, sun porches and cellars. Many of them had just finished cleaning and remodeling from the last batch they had dumped on their homes in fall.
Another scare Saturday afternoon reported that the large mud dam at the west end of town was about ready to break, and people began to evacuate, and all traffic was stopped from entering the town at either end. A mine inspector was brought in to evaluate the condition and it is reported that he considered the dam safe and did not expect another break. The big break did not occur, but silt did continue all day to run down through the town onto the highway and work crews continued to make an attempt to keep the roads passable.
Lykens, just 12 miles west of Tower City, was extremely inundated after the town reservoir broke and many families were forced to evacuate. Shop and Play, is reported to have suffered extensive loss and the bridge nearby reportedly was washed out. Nestor’s tap and die plant will have to do repair work before it can operate fully, and owners of coal companies found their coal banks and much of their equipment washed away. Electricity and water had not yet been restored Monday.
Mrs. George Klinger of Elizabethville, a sister-in-law of Vernon Klinger, Mrs. Mark Adams, and Mrs. Violet Shuey, was washed away from her car early Thursday morning as she was traveling to work at Millersburg. Fire companies attempted to throw ropes to her but were not able to reach her and she slipped away from the roof of her car.
Sunday afternoon about 3:00 o’clock, a farmer who had been out checking his grounds saw the body of a woman in some wooded area. he notified George Klinger, and he and his brother Vernon Klinger went to the area and identified the woman as his wife. They carried her as far as they could, but the weight of her body from the water was too much and Vernon took his Scout car and loaded the body on it. Her body had been washed to about a mile and a half from her home, between Elizabethville and Berrysburg. Funeral services were held Tuesday. A sister-in-law reported that the dead woman’s plastic rain cap was found in a tree about eight feet above the ground. It is believed that she was caught in the tree while the waters were high, but when the waters receded, the weight of her body was too much and fell from the tree.
Pine Grove to the east was another town that suffered extensively, and many of the factories and businesses were inoperable.
June 22, 1972, is a day that will be long remembered. It just didn’t seem possible that all that water could have been up there, and now it already hard to believe that it was all here. There was still rain part of Friday and Saturday and again Sunday night, but not with the heavy force of Thursday’s storm. We’re all ready for a bit of sunshine, and now that we’ve already passed the longest day of the year, perhaps we’d like to find what summer’s all about anyhow.
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From the West Schuylkill Herald, Tower City, June 29, 1972, via Newspapers.com.
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