GRAMPS SCRAPBOOK

MARCH 17, ST. PATRICK'S DAY

Each year, ST. Patrickʼs Day reminds Gramps of the the flood of 1936.

Gramps lived a block away from the West Branch of the Susquehanna river in
Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Each spring the river would rise and create flood conditions to one degree or another.
The flooding never bothered the house where Gramps lived but, year 1936 was
different , very, very different !

A lot of weather came from the West, down the Susquehanna river valley formed by f
the Appalachian mountains ( Allegheny Range ? )

In the winter, this resulted in some drifting of winter snows that were quite manageable
but, not his time !

Mother nature plopped a huge moist air mass over the Susquehanna river watershed
and dumped its moisture in the form of snow

The amount of snow was so much and the wind was so strong, out of the West, across
the open farmland across from the house that, it drifted the snow right onto all the houses
on Queen street and piled it high. As well as Gramps can recall, about 5 to 6 feet high.

The entire 2 block long street was drifted to that depth.

Our house was literally snowed in. It was impossible to get out of the front door and
passage out of the back door to anywhere was by means of trenches cut through the
snow.

This was the time of the great depression when the US government , under President
Franklin Roosevelt, had a program known as the WPA.- Works Progress
Administration, The program was designed to create work for the unemployed who
were then paid by the government.

The Mayor of the city got the WPA to dig us out by hand shoveling

In coolie fashion, through several tiers, they created a huge pile of snow across the full
length of Queen St. The pile was so high that the view of the farm was blocked except
from the second floor windows. The pile must have been about 10 to 12 high.

Then mother nature,once again, decided to plop a moist air mass over the
Susquehanna watershed. But, this time it poured rain onto all that snow and caused the
river begin to rise.

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One evening, during that raining, the family was watching the radio. We didnʼʼt just listen
to the radio, we sat around and literally looked at it during any program.

Gramps doesnʼt remember what program it was but, it was interrupted with an
emergency message, The river was rising rapidly with more snow to be melted by the
rain. Lots of water was to come from up stream. As in indication of how much, the dam
at Clearfield PA had already overflowed. It had never done so before.

The message further advised all residents near the river to move to higher ground
within the next several hours

We were one of few families with a telephone, so Pop and Mom began making
arrangements with some friends who lived up hill on the North side of town to take us in.

We were not sure as to whether or not all our neighbors had radios or had heard the
message so Gramps two brothers proceeded to get the message to them.

None of the neighbors left. Gramps family did.

The next morning,. Gramps two brothers were taking those same neighbors out in row
boats

And it continued to pour rain for several days after.

After the rain stopped, the river continued to rise and reached its peak on St. Patrickʼs
Day.

In our house the water reached the top of the first floor doors. The first floor was about 3
feet above the street level.

We sat on the long balcony, where we stayed during the flood, and on a bright sunny
day, watched the river flood a major portion of the city. We watched everything come
down the river- trees, buildings, animals and all sorts of debris.

Oil fired furnaces were just beginning to be used and the oil tanks were typically not
weighted down. We could see them floating downstream. One tank struck a building
downtown, caught on fire and burned an entire block of buildings to the water line. No fire
trucks could get to the fire.

The fire trucks had all been removed from their fire stations,and were parked at the
edge of the rising water. Gramps remembered walking down to see them and then
again walking down to see them later. The firemen kept moving them to stay out of the
rising water.

Williamsport received its electric power from across the mountain, across the river to a
electrical transformer station at the foot of Queen Street. It went under water. The main
telephone station was downtown and it went under water. Williamsport had no electricity
and had no telephone service. Except for a lone short wave radio operator,
Williamsport was out of touch with the rest of the world.
.

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Once the flood reached its peak, it subsided rather rapidly. Within a couple of days we
were able to return to our house driving and walking though a sea of mud with debris
everywhere.
..
Obviously the city and its people desperately need help and it came,

It came from everywhere. I came from the City, from the State and from the Country.
It came from the Red Cross, from the WPA. from the National Guard, from the CCC
(Civilian Conservation Corp), from the NYA (National Youth Administration), from the
fire department, from the police department and from those few families who had not
been hit by the flood.

They came with food, water and help.

They cleaned up the debris. They washed the street.

The house next door was a two story duplex sitting low to the ground, with a full width
covered front porch. A farm shed, called a chicken coop, the full with of the house
smashed into the house collapsing its front porch.

It was full of dead chickens. The National Guard cleared out all of the dead chickens,
disinfected the inside and outside with a spray and disinfected us as well.

We got shots in the arm from someone.

A fire truck pumped out our basement filled with flood water.

Some men were filling all the holes in the ground caused by the swirling water. The
holes were still full of water.

Pop had a pear tree at each corner of the front of the house. They were now leaning
over in pools of water. The men decided to stand them erect while they were backfiring
the holes. One of the men stepped into one of the holes to hold the tree erect while
others back filled the hole. He promptly sand chest high.

The swirling water had created a hole down to the foundation footing of the house.
Luckily no damage has been done.- Not even a broken pane of glass. The water inside
the house must have seeped through the door and window perimeters and therefore
did not swirl.

All the furniture that could float rose with the water and settled back down exactly where it
was before the flood. Table tops would be clean but coated with mud from the
underside of the table top down to the floor,

The Red Cross asked Pop what kind of damage the flood caused and gave Pop cash
with which to replace a newly purchased refrigerator damaged by the flood, .

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On the first day of return, Gramps brothers and some other men got a live bull down
from a tree in the back yard. The bull had been caught in the branches while flooding
downstream. Thatʼs probably while it did not drown.

The local Sunday paperʼ (Williamsport Grit) went under water. However, the paper
managed to get a press rolling and produced a single section of nothing but
photographs including a photo of the bull in the tree. That was the only paper we
delivered that Sunday and it was delivered at no cost to the customers.

We still had running water and the toilets worked. However, the water was not for
drinking. It was used to wash away all the mud.

In the basement everything was coated with mud including the inside ot the furnace and
inside its ductwork, all the coal in the coal bin had been coated with mud and even the
first floor wood framing was covered with mud.

We used the garden hose to get the mud off of and from inside everything including the
walls and floors Although the inside was repainted, the water line was evident for a long
time. The dust between the wood floors and and the sub floor took years before it was
gone.

The City had tried for years to get federal funding to build dikes to protect the city from
the floods. Eventually, the city was successful and the dikes were built. However that
required a railroad paralleling the river to be moved. Then they placed a super highway
parallel to the railroad. That project took the land and the house at 30 Queen St. -
something the floods could never do.

At the time of the flood Gramps was a young boy, only 11 years old and never really
fathomed, then, the disaster that the flood really was. But, Gramps remembers the
flood, very well, every St. Pattyʼs Day !

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