Johnstown High School - Spectator Yearbook (Johnstown, PA)

Page 10 text:

Part of what used to be Messenger St. r hT Tiomin oMh floo saMr ou dining room listening to the radio. It was hard for me to grasp the idea that several people were dead in an area just a mile away from where I was. It was also unbelievable to me that downtown Johnstown, a place I had been the day before, was covered with mud and water. Sure, we had a couple of inches of water in our basement, but that was caused by ex- cessive run-off from the hillside. But to have several feet of water would have been frightning. While listening to the radio, I remembered my mother’s stories of the flood of ’36. Her house had been swamped with mud since she lived right by the Stoneycreek. She and her family spent many days shoveling out the mud and cleaning the house. Even years later when they changed the wall paper they had dried mud coming off the walls, even though they had scrubbed both walls and floors to perfection. Those days in July were hard times for many people, and there are more hard times ahead. But we, the people, will live through them with everlasting faith. -Mary Klemens 6 77 Graduate Becky Hunter's house was totally destroyed, Above, Bringing back memories of the 1936 flood. Below: The Furst backyard: scene of a four car pile-up.

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The flood waters proved to be too much for this home on Messenger Street. A National Guard truck plows through the muddy waters downtown in an attempt to rescue victims. was rudelyawakenedfrommysleep a frantic pounding on the door. I looked at my alarm clock, 6:00 A.M. I couldn’t imagine who would be knocking on our door at that time of the morning, so I just turned over, choosing to ignore it. But the knocking per- sisted, and I finally got up to answer the door. My brother and his wife rushed into the house. His first words were, Johns- town’s flooded!” I couldn’t believe it. By this time my mother and my other brother were up, and they heard the shocking news. We quickly got dressed and jumped into my brother’s Jeep. He drove through Moxham, where we saw the water, mud and debris. Even though it was only 6:30 in the morning, the streets and sidewalks were crowded with people, out to see the rushing flood water and the damage. We drove as far as we could near Ohio Street, which resembled a raging river. I sat staring, not able to be- lieve what I saw; huge slabs of cement were uprooted from the road. Later that afternoon, after the water had receded slightly, we waded through knee- deep mud to Central Avenue. Cars in the U.S. Steel parking lot were sitting helter-skelter in the mud. We made our way to the bridge by Cochran. The water level in the river was so high that it was a miracle that Cochran was not flooded. We traveled on, across the bridge by Valley Pike and into Hornerstown. I was hot, tired and muddy as I turned back toward home. And I was thankful that I still had a home to return to. —Traci Muenzer

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Layers of mud and debris cover Von Lunen Road. Robel Construction Company, destroyed by water and by fire. r I was watching the All-Star game that’ evening and every now and then I would ven- ture onto the porch to watch the electrifying display of lightning, a display that would im- prove its performance as the evening pro- gressed. Surprisingly enough, the rain did stop for a brief moment sometime around 9:30 p.m., but we’ve had thunderstorms be- fore and there didn’t seem to be anything special about this one. Sometime after ten o’clock the rain resumed its steady beat. The T.V. blacked-out soon afterwards, and the next thing I remember is someone say- ing, Hey! We have water in the cellar!” Im- mediately we turned on the pump and start- ed a bucket brigade to bail the water out. This wasn’t too difficult, since ther are six members in my family. Practically all the families on our block were older couples and could do nothing but watch. We were luckier than most; at least we had a fighting chance. The water outside was rising steadily, but we managed to keep the water in the cellar down to only a few inches. That is, until the electricity went out. The pump stopped. The lights flickered briefly before they too gave in. Now we could do nothing but watch. My brother and I grabbed some tool-kits on our way up: they were some of the few things we managed to salvage from our cellar. The cars!” I completely forgot about the cars. I looked outside and saw that the water was up to the doors. Our neighbor’s drive- way was an ideal spot. I managed to save the first one. But the second was destroyed by the raging water. When the water was within six inches of the first floor, we started carrying some of our valuables upstairs. After that we could Vdo nothing but sit and watch the water rise. —John Valkovci Rushing water damaged garages and pavement.