Johnstown High School - Spectator Yearbook (Johnstown, PA)

Page 15 text:

Youngsters wade up Broad Street to examine other parts of the city. Above: The bursting of the Laurel Run Dam almost wiped out the community of Tanneryville. Below: Emily Steele sits for- lornly on the rocks where her house used to be. A typical scene on Cooper Avenue in Tanneryville. When I went to sleep that night I realize that something like this would hap- pen. I thought it would just be another rainy night in July, but I was wrong. The rain was beating down heavily on the roof and the windows. As I lay in bed listening to the crackling of the lightning and the loud claps of thunder I hoped that those bolts wouldn’t strike the house. Soon I fell asleep but was wakened at 2:30 by my father. I looked out- side from the porch and I couldn’t believe what I saw. There was muddy brown water everywhere. It was to the third step on the porch. There was water rushing over the banks of the creek behind Bheam School and coming through the yard. I guess as long as I live I will be able to re- member the crash of the water rushing past and the stench of the mud after the flood. When the sun came out I could see the devastation caused by the flood. Cars were upside down. Trees were uprooted. Morrell- ville was a mess. I wondered if we were the only ones hit by the flood. There was a lot of confusion and nobody was really aware of how terribly the city and surrounding communities had been hit. v —Tom Fleming

Page 14 text:

I never thought anythingsc e bl could happen to my little community of Tannery- ville. Floods happened to other people, but not us. I live up on a hill called Wildcat and I thank God for that. Those of us who were lucky enough to survive the flood will never be able to understand the terror and tragedy the people below us faced that night. That morning I woke to my dad’s screaming words, Oh, my God, there’s no more Hol- low!” He named names of families believed dead, houses and businesses completely washed away. I couldn’t comprehend any of this. I thought it was a big exaggeration. But when I got to what was left of the bottom of our hill, I understood why he had been so frantic. What had once been a little creek was now a raging river. People were just standing around staring. One of my father’s friends asked me if I had seen or heard any- thing about his daughter and her baby. I told him no. Now in tears, he started wading, waist deep, through the water toward her house. Later I learned that they both were dead. Only a minute later, a good friend of mine came up to me and said his girlfriend was dead. He hugged me and held on so long and so tight. Speechless, I wished there were something I could say that might possibly comfort him. But there was nothing I could do. There was nothing I could say to anyone who lost family or friends, but I could give my all to help them get back on their feet again. The flood brought the people of Tan- neryville a lot closer together. We’ll never be the same again, but those of us who sur- vived will always have a special love for one another. —Karen Horner National Guardsmen search for bodies. 0

Page 16 text:

The morning after the flood dawned peaceful over the city. There was an almost poetic stillness in the water surrounding the high school, belying the terror of the preceeding night. In her fury, Nature had claimed 77 lives and left 9 missing in the wake of the Great Flood of ’ll. 12