Valley Girl Views: 1972 Flood - Photos & Stories From Milton, PA

An Aerial View Of Flooded Milton, 1972

"It is almost impossible to tell the Milton flood story in a limited amount of space. So much happened, and so many people were involved. Some talked of the borough being stronger because of the 'spirit of unity" that developed among the citizens as they fought the floodwaters and then worked together to rebuild. They said the 'people were closer... more equal'. Time will tell." The Sunbury Daily Item, July 20 1972

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Listen To The Agony Of Agnes Radio Broadcast from WMLP Here

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The house in the background, here on Garfield and Ferry Lane, should be sitting behind those steps.

Evan C Williams was the mayor of Milton in 1972. he said the destruction reminded him of a bombed out city after WWII. Cellars caved in, buildings were off their foundations, and a thick coat of oily mud covered everything.

"Milton, with no flood protection system, was the hardest-hit community in the area."

Every morning Vicki Mero took a long walk with her guide dog Charm. On Thursday morning, Vicki got as far as the back porch and Charm refused to go any further. Later, when her mother arose, Vicki told her she couldn't' get Charm to leave the porch. Mrs Mero looked out the window, the water was already in their backyard. Just then the alarm sounded, warning of the flooding.

The flood began while most residents were still a sleep, on the morning of June 22

Limestone Creek flooded it's banks, forcing evacuations from the homes in the Center & Hepburn streets areas by mid morning.

Center Street, at Railroad Street

The water came unexpectedly, before residents had time to move their furniture or belongings up to the second floor.

A cement swimming pool on Myrtle Street

"The situation seemed unreal to may residents. One Myrtle Avenue resident looked out his kitchen window and saw his concrete swimming pool rise from the ground and begin floating like a boat."

A trailer floating down front street

By mid morning on the 22nd, Mayor Williams had declared a state of emergency, and the National Guardsman began to arrive. They would spend the the next two weeks in the town.

"I kept in direct contact with the weather bureau and FEMA and they kept telling me, 'By a certain time you're going to have X number of feet in Milton,' and I said, 'You're crazy, I already got that much. What am I going to have tomorrow?'" Mr. Hartzel (Milton's safety director) said. "They were so far behind on the weather forecasting. At that time, we didn't have the capability of keeping up with it."

By late Thursday morning, the Susquehanna River had begun to lap over sections of Font Street, and the local merchants were moving whatever they could to higher levels.

Moving Merchandise at Famous Department Store

Stores put their merchandise up to where it was safe in the 1936 flood, sure that the water would not go higher than that. But it did.

On Friday, the fourth flood death in Northumberland county was discovered in Milton. It's thought that David Peluso, from South Williamsport, had been attempting to get to work Thursday night at Ceco in New Columbia. He left shortly after 10pm, and was not heard from again. The Coroner was of the opinion that Peluso was trying to reach RT 80 after crossing the river at either Allenwood or Watsontown, and his car had been swept away in the flood waters. His car was found near the ramp leading to I-80. The vehicle had been severely battered in the water

Early Saturday morning borough residents had to evacuate the area around ACF when a 90,000 propane tank was found to be leaking. Experts in New York, Washington, Chicago and New Jersey were contacted, and the fireman were relieved to hear there was little chance of the tank exploding. The risk of it causing a fire however, was still a huge concern. The valves on the top were shut off, but one on the bottom was 20 feet down in muddy black floodwater.

Randall Young of Vicksburg, an experienced diver with the Buffalo Valley Rescue squad, made the dive, and was "exposed to several doses of propane gas" before he was able to shut it off. Later he had to make the dive again, when yet another leak was discovered.

After a boat rescue failed, the Gundrums were rescued by police helicopter, and dropped off at the Miton High School Athletic field

Red Cross headquarters were set up in the middle school on Turbot Avenue. The school served as a shelter for almost 300 evacuees.

Looking East On Race Street

Civil Defense headquarters were set up in the borough office, but as water later that day was knee deep in that building, that was moved to the middle school as well.

Milton Elementary School

Police and fire headquarters were set up in Independence Fire Hall off of Broadway, located just yards from where the water eventually stopped.

Broadway

The National Guards communication system had been lost when the armory flooded early Thursday morning.

South Front Street

Buffalo Valley Rescue Squad brought in a communication system, along with ten divers, to help with rescue operations.

Trailer at the Chef Boyardee Tomato Receiving Station

Two men stayed at the White Deer Water Plant to keep the plant in operation as long as possible - and then they had to be rescued by helicopter from the roof.

The rubble in the foreground is where the Arrowhead once stood.

La Hacienda, a recently opened teen night club, was crushed on both ends by the water.

Across the road, the Skat gas station disappeared in the flood waters, along with an ice cream stand.

The pumps are still standing, but the gas station building was gone.

Trailers on each end of town were picked up and ripped apart as they were thrown into trees and other buildings.

Ben and Marty Weaver lived in Bucknell View trailer court south of town. When they saw the water starting to rise, they, as they had in past floods, began to move important items up to higher spots. Then as they went to sit on the steps and watch the water rise, they saw a garbage can float by the window, and realized the water already covered the steps. The swirling water was too swift to walk through, but the couple managed to get a ladder from their shed, and climb to the roof of their trailer. Ben recalled that he could put his legs over the edge of the roof and dangle them in the water, it was so high. The couple sat up there, in the wind and rain, for 5 hours, unsure if help would come. No one knows for sure who called WMLP, but it's thought that someone spotted Marty's flashlight. The radio station broadcast that there was someone in need of rescue, and at 3am a helicopter arrived. To rescue the couple, the pilot needed to maintain contact with the roof, without allowing any of the weight of the machine to push down on the trailer. This pilot was not named, but many articles were written about pilots home from Vietnam, flying rescue helicopters all along the east coast during the 1972 flood. When the waters receded and the Weavers returned to see what personal belongings could be salvaged, their trailer was gone. It had floated away and was nestled in a tree line near Chilisquaque creek.

Many mobile home owners returned days later to find their homes either gone, or so crumpled that they were simply abandoned at dumps.

The house in the background here had had water up to it's roof line, but had been sitting still, until the trailer came along and knocked into the edge of it, removing it from it's foundation. Both house and trailer ended up on 405.

The trailer in the above photo can be seen on the right. Both a house and a trailer were washed onto the road. Housels Run is off to the left

Mahoning Street, at the railroad tracks

When the water stopped rising, it reached to the railroad tracks above Filbert street, flooding the entire business district. Water from Limestone Creek reached the middle school, flooding the basement and the gym floor.

Brown Avenue Park

On Sunday, the waters receded, and people began to return home to check the damages. Clean up would last for several weeks.

The Stores:

We tend to think it was the malls and wal-marts that destroyed downtown Milton - but the reality is, it was the 1972 flood, and the governments redevelopment plan after the flood, that brought an end to bustling downtown shopping area.

Here's an idea of what downtown looked like before the flood, and subsequent redevelopment plan. For more old photos of the town through the decades, go here:

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2020/04/milton-pa.html

After the 1972 flood, Ten businesses left downtown Milton, never to return. The Department store in the former Hotel Haag held on for a few more years, but the owner, Robert Partchey, said that with all of the other businesses leaving the area brought a decline to his business, making the cost of renovations prohibitive.

Fishers, On Market Street

The Northumberland County Redevelopment Authority had been trying to acquire the four story 165 x 44 foot Hotel Haag for a redevelopment project, and had been involving Partchey in litigation. Partchey finally gave in in the 1980s. The Milton Hotel was torn down, and eventually, a new one story bank was built in its place. Today it is M&T Bank." The Hotel Haag, Milton Pa

The Betsy Ross had thousands of dollars in damage to their kitchen and freezer equipment, but with new flooring and a coat of paint, were soon able to reopen. Stores like Rea & Derick did not fare as well, losing nearly all of their inventory.

Inside Rea & Derick

Amazingly, many stores were open within a very short period of time. The windows might be boarded up, and many were using tables in place of their destroyed display cases. Some had very limited merchandise, as suppliers everywhere were having trouble shipping stock, and were swamped with orders. Leesers had moved all of their merchandise, and only had to replace their carpet.

But others were closed for good.

Inside Keiser Pharmacy

Seven feet of water destroyed Keisers pharmacy. Harold Keiser did not reopen his store.

Keisers Rexall was in a beautiful building across from the river bridge. All of these buildings were demolished a few years later as part of the redevelopment plan.

Industries

The Floors At Fox Knapp

Fox Knapp has to replace over 20,000 sq feet of flooring in the sewing room. The company lost large stacks of piece goods, and some of their sewing machines.

At Warshow & Sons, the office and ware house (shown above) there were damages, but the bulk of the flood damage was in the dye house. The firm went on vacation schedule after the flood, and maintenance personnel had everything back up and running two weeks later.

At American Home Foods (Chef Boyardee) damage was set at 3 million.

Six feet of water covered the new warehouse, and all the processed foods (shown above) had to be hauled out and destroyed. The entire frozen pizza department had been under water, including the freezers, ovens and presses.

The tomato receiving station (shown above) on Cameron avenue had been under water,and destroyed.

Cars washed off the tracks at ACF

At ACF, electric motors and high current equipment was all damaged in the flood waters. The propane gas storage tanks were damaged as well. The plant was shut down for over a month after the flood, for repairs.

Damage at the ACF plant alone was estimated to be $400,000

Continental Can was one of the first to resume production after the flood. All of the already finished cans had to be discarded, and the pile was ten feet high outside the building (shown above)

The Claster Lumber Shed that had washed away

Clean Up

A group of boys help to clean out the office of the Milton Standard

"The Mud smelled like fuel oil, and there as about a foot of it in the house"

Bulldozing the debris from the streets

When the Lins left their Myrtle Street home, they forgot to unplug the freezer in the basement. When they returned, it was still plugged in, floating on top of the water. The lid had remained sealed, and when it was opened, all of the food had remained frozen solid inside. The light in the freezer still worked too!

Mrs Donald Herrick, North Front Street, had a musical chime attached to her front door. When she returned to her mud-coated home after the flood, she pushed the door shut and the box began to play "Whistle While You Work".

There was certainly enough work to be done.

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