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Montgomery EMA places sign to mark the ‘72 flood

By Jade Heasley - | Nov 10, 2023

Members of the Montgomery Emergency Management Agency (Montgomery EMA) have placed a sign on the side of the Montgomery Little League building at River Field, showing the highwater mark of the 1972 flood. While Montgomery has experienced major floods before and since, the 1972 flood was the worst one in the town’s history.

According to the National Weather Service, flood levels of the Susquehanna River at Montgomery have been recorded since 1865. A notorious flood occurred in Montgomery in 1889, and the water crested at 33.1 feet (www.weather.gov). Patrol boats were sent out during the disaster. The Montgomery Hotel (located at the site of the current Uni-Mart) assisted their efforts by making sandwiches that they distributed from the windows directly to the boats (“Around Montgomery” by Joan Wheal Blank).

In 1936, Montgomery had, at that time, the worst flood in history since records were kept. Flood waters covered fifty-six percent of the borough and lots of buildings were swept away (“Montgomery Centennial” history booklet). The river bridge was torn apart, and a three-hundred-foot section of the bridge washed into Montgomery Park, which was left in ruins (The Luminary, January 20, 2023).

The Montgomery EMA Coordinator, Dennis Gruver, recorded some of his experiences in a document titled “Memories of Hurricane Agnes”. He wrote that the 1936 Flood reached 36.30 ft. The record was surpassed in 1972. It was brought on by rain that lasted for many days during Hurricane Agnes.

The new sign on the Little League building shows where the flood crested at 37.4 ft. on June 22, 1972.

Gruver wrote, “I was appointed Emergency Management Coordinator for the Borough of Montgomery on December 29, 1969. That was the greatest amount of flooding I hope that our community shall ever have to deal with.”

When the flood waters began to rise, the Montgomery EMA quickly went into action, doing everything that they could to assist the local residents. The work of the Montgomery EMA was heroic. They also coordinated with other local organizations to provide rescue and relief, both in their actions and by providing equipment that proved crucial.

The flood began on June 22, 1972, and the fire company had to perform a rescue of a family who found themselves stranded in their home near the intersection of School House Road and Route 54 during the early morning hours. The rescue was successful, and the boat used to bring the family to safety was provided by the EMA, according to Gruver.

Montgomery residents who remember those days have long told the stories of the havoc wreaked by the rising waters, flooding homes in the vicinity between the Montgomery Park and Montgomery Street, and even as far away as the lower end of Bower Street near the railroad tracks. Many of these homes were later demolished, and the areas where they stood remain empty lots.

Many residents were temporarily displaced, and needed to be sheltered elsewhere. Gruver wrote that the EMA owned the equipment for a 200 bed emergency hospital that included cots, blankets and pillows. Volunteers worked to get all of the equipment up to Montgomery Area High School, where it was set up to accommodate those who needed a place to stay until the flood waters receded. “While I worked on the outside with volunteers from the Fire Department, EMA, and others that just wanted to help with logistics, my wife Nancy headed up the mass care Red Cross operations inside the school with many volunteers,” Gruver wrote. He said that people stayed there for several days and were provided with food onsite.

Gruver stated that the municipal water system was ruined, and the sewage system sustained damage. Fortunately, a borough resident named Dorsey Creveling had a well at his house on West Houston Avenue that he allowed the EMA to access. The EMA had 18-gallon water cans that they collected and took to the school for those staying there. The water enabled cooking meals as well as flushing toilets. The EMA also filled water cans that they distributed around town for residents who weren’t flooded out but had their water and sewer service disrupted.

While the flood did cause severe damage, Gruver wrote, “the town came together to keep Montgomery on the map.”

Now that a sign has been placed to mark the highwater level, everyone who sees it can remember not only the disaster, but the many volunteers who came together to help their neighbors in the worst natural disaster in Montgomery’s history.