[Doug]

Today is the 49th anniversary of the February 26, 1972 flood disaster. There is a lot of publications regarding the event. Here are some photos.



https://www.bing.com/images/search?q...mageBasicHover

[sdbob]

Wow. Thanks for posting. I cant imagine the terror,then the loss. Noticed a Latrobe sign.

[GT182]

I was in 2 floods back before I was 9 years old in Unadilla, NY... my old home town on the Susquehanna River. Not quite as bad as the Buffalo Creek photos you linked to Doug, but still bad just the same. I can't find photos of the first 2, but I can still see the devastation in my mind. The last one was back in the mid 80s, tho I can't remember the exact date, and it was just as bad as the other two. Here are some photos complements of Bing.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q...mageBasicHover

One thing you never can mess with that will bite you is water. Snow and ice are one thing, but water is an unforgiving killer.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by sdbob

Wow. Thanks for posting. I cant imagine the terror,then the loss. Noticed a Latrobe sign.

Yes, Latrobe, WV like many coal mining towns in southwest WV carried names from several towns in PA.

If you look at that picture again, the house you see in the background is the house I lived in in the late 1940's. If you visualize the scene, across the road to the right is another house where I lived in the early 1950's. That house was one of four and that house "survived" the 1972 flood but the other three houses were destroyed and my 5th grade teacher and his wife who were our neighbors in the 50's were both killed in the flood. The surviving house was razed when repairs were made. I have a couple of bricks from the foundation of it in my garage.

The railroad crossing in the picture is where I caught the school bus in1st thru 3rd grade in the 40's.

[fyrffytr1]

Floods are terrible things and their power is beyond imagining. I worked for the fire department when we were hit with what was called the 500 year flood in that a flood of that magnitude only happened once in 500 years.The land around here is very flat so you can try to imagine how much water it took to reach the roofs of houses a mile from the river.Our town as cut in half. The only route across the river was a bridge 40 miles north of town.