By Carol Fisher Linn
Some anniversaries are not happy celebrations. Fifty years ago, Hurricane Agnes brought flooding to the Southern Tier – again.
Fifty years ago this June, Olean, Portville, NY and parts of north and central Pennsylvania were slammed with a devastating flood thanks to tropical storm Agnes. Other areas affected by the flood were McKean, Elk, Potter, and Cameron Counties in Pennsylvania with 15 deaths attributed to that flood.
The same area suffered a devastating flood July 17-18, 1942, where more than 2200 people perished. In the aftermath, flood dikes were built in 1952. Unfortunately, even the dikes did not prevent more flooding and damage thirty years later in 1972. They proved to be no match for hurricane Agnes which was the costliest hurricane to hit the U.S., causing $2.1 billion in damage and taking 128 lives.
Destructive as these floods were, they don’t compare to the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 with 27,000 square miles inundated in depths up to 30 feet over the course of several months. Although it didn’t happen during that flood, the great and powerful Mississippi River has actually reversed its flow, first in 1812 when a massive earthquake created a “fluvial tsunami” in the river. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina sent the waters backward for a few hours and its level was raised 13 feet. In 2012 Hurricane Isaac was the perpetrator sending the river backward for 24 hours with an exceptionally strong velocity. This is a good example of why one does not fool with Mother Nature.
Floods are severely underestimated. They are the #1 disaster in the United States aside from wildfires. All fifty states are subject to flash floods which can bring walls of water from 10 to 20 feet high. Six inches of fast-moving water is enough to knock an adult down. When you watch flooding on the news you often see drivers trying to navigate through them. 66% of flood related deaths come from these attempts. A car can be carried away in as little as two feet of water. If you have homeowners’ insurance, you have insurance against flooding, right? Nope. Unless you have a Flood Policy, you need a separate policy if you live in a flood prone area.
The flood of 1927 along the Mississippi River was not the biggest flood recorded. On August 1, 1993, the Mississippi at St. Louis, crested at 49.58 feet, the highest flood stage ever recorded. But we can’t talk about floods without talking about The Great Flood, possibly the first one that happened. Robert Ballard, an acclaimed underwater archaeologist (he and his crew found the Titanic) has found proof that the biblical flood was actually based on real events. Carbon dating shells along the underwater shoreline of the Black Sea, four hundred feet below the surface off the coast of Turkey, Ballard established a timeline for the Great Flood which is estimated to have happened around 5,000 BC. Some experts believe this is around the time when 600-year-old Noah’s flood could have occurred, 1656 years after the time of Adam (of Adam and Eve fame). (ABC News 12/05/12 – “evidence Noah’s Biblical Flood Happened …”
It is good to respect water, especially fast-moving water, flooding over dry land. As in this area, fifty years ago, there sometimes is very little warning of widespread flooding, sometimes only hours (three in Pittsburgh and eight in Salamanca). Although the sight of water rising so quickly is fascinating, the best thing to do is not gawk, but to seek higher ground, and fast. Sometimes flooding happens in the most unlikely places. In the early sixties, I lived in Sloan, off of Broadway (think 10 miles from Broadway Market). It was hardly a flood zone, and yet, we had rains that fell so quickly and hard that the viaducts over Broadway looked like a bridge sitting on a river. Hardly a place one would expect a flood. So, be smart. Be alert, and don’t look for an adventure if you are faced with a flood.
Caption:
View from Erie Lackawanna train tracks, looking down Water Street in Elmira New York during the Flood of 1972. The Elmira Savings and Loan bank building can be seen in the background.
Hurricane Agnes in 1972 was the costliest hurricane to hit the United States at the time, causing an estimated $2.1 billion in damage. The storm formed on June 14 and dissipated on July 6, 1972. The hurricane’s death toll was 128. The effects of Agnes were widespread, from the Caribbean to Canada, with much of the east coast of the United States affected. Damage was heaviest in Pennsylvania, where Agnes was the state’s wettest tropical cyclone. Due to the significant effects, the name Agnes was retired in the spring of 1973. – Wikipedia.com