Aug. 27,1986
Area Experienced Life-Threatening
Over the past 20 years this area
has been the victim of three ma
jor incidences—two natural and
one technological. Both had
great but opposite impact on the
campus. The natural disasters
brought people to us while the
human mistake drove them
away.
Hurricane Agnes struck the
Harrisburg area with all its fury
in June 1972. After 48 hours of
continual torrential downpour,
people willingly left their home
for higher ground.
On June 22, Penn State at Har
risburg was contact by Middle
town Civil Defense and Lower
Swatara Township Commis
sioners asking for space for an
evacuation center.
With only a limited staff and
handful of students on campus
awaiting graduation on June 24,
Norman Gantreau, manager of
food and housing, set up the
center. Serving over 1,000 of
the displaced people, the school
turned to the community for
help. Businesses, including Pan
try Pride (food store), Twin
Kiss, McDonald’s and the Big M
(discount store), donated every
thing from food to diapers.
Rock Festivals Drew Thousands
Woodstock is a legend. Even if
some of us don’t remember
when it actually happened, we've
heard enough about it in suc
ceeding years to be able to con
jure up a vision.
In May, 1971, two years after
the historic gathering, a group
of campus students formed a so
cial organization called "Good-
People Productions". Through
their tireless efforts, along with
the support of Jerry South, dean
of student services, 12 hours of
music was provided to an im
pressive audience of 15,000
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Fruehauf loaned three large trail
ers, one refrigerator, one freezer
and one dry food storage.
The campus was designated an
authorized flood relief center for
people to receive free food,
clothing and emergency expense
money.
As the flood subsided many
people were able to return to
their homes. However, about
100 families had lost every
thing. To accomodate this group
trailers, dubbed Flood Village,
were set up as temporary homes
on the grass in front of die main
building. They remained there
for two years.
Then, just three years later, on
September, 1975, the "once in a
lifetime” was back. This one,
precipitated by a storm named
Eloise, was not as extensive as
the previous one, therefore not
too many people had to be
evacuated.
people. With the stage located in
front of the Olmsted building,
people were sprawled all over
the lawn listening to the 12
bands who donated their time.
By 1972, the festival grew to
around 25,000 people. Again the
free festival offered 12 hours of
entertainment from groups from
Philadelphia and Washington as
well as Central Pennsylvania.
For several years the concerts
flourished, gaining momentum
as word of mouth spread. But by
1976, the rock festival fever be
gan to fade, and so did the
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Harrisburg, PA. 17101
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The students who stayed on campus during
weren’t going to he cheated out of a graduation,
mony became known as 'the "rump graduation."
Capital Times
However, once again the cam
pus community pitched in to
respond in a spirit of coop
eration. Many students living on
campus stayed to ready the area,
XGl's helped evacuate families
from Village of Pineford and
low lying parts of Middletown,
members of the campus student
security force fielded inquiries
from the outside. Countless
other students, staff, and faculty
lent a helping hand, many of
whom had homes also in
jeopardy. Within days, flood
waters subsided and people were
able to return to their homes.
The technological mistake,
which could have been much
worse than it was) sent people
scurrying to safety. On March
28, 1979, the emergency at
Three Mile Island nuclear power
station caused the campus to
close for ten days.
Thousands of people evacuated
crowd, which was estimated at
10,000.
In an attempt to keep the in
creasingly unruly crowd away
from the classroom building, the
concert was moved to the hill
behind the Engineering Lab, at
the natural amphitheater. How
ever, because of lack of elec
tricity, the concert was forced to
end at dusk.
As early as September, 1978,
student leaders were informed
that there would be no more
concerts. Problems cited in mak
ing this decision included drug
and alcohol abuse incidences,
complaints received from sur
rounding community of the
crowds and noise, and the small
percentage of the crowd being
university student (10 percnet
attending were under 18 years
old).
The rock festivals, no matter
the size, took countless hours of
planning and coordination.
These events probably mark an
all-time high of cooperation
among students, faculty, admini
stration and staff at PSU at
Harrisburg.
the area and Penn State students
were no different. However,
upon their return, the students
demanded a refund for services
unavailable to them during the
emergency. A study of the situ
ation was made by the powers at
University Park and a suitable
refund was made for unused
housing and food services. In
addition, a revised class schedule
had classes being held on Mem
orial Day that year.
As a result of the accident, Pro
vost Theodore Gross issued a
statement informing the public
that a Research Information
Clearinghouse would be estab
lished on campus. The aim of
this project was to "collate all
date pertinent to the imapct of
this nuclear event.” All con
cerned scholar and citizens were
invited to make use of this
facility. The abundance of data
collected, and proximity to TMI
the June 1972 flood
The impromptu cere-
Early arrivals claim their territories for
the free spring' concert in 1973.
Events
brought the Keminey Commis
sion to Penn State at Harrisburg
to hold its week long hearings
on the cause of the accident
In an effort to ease students
concerns of another TMI acci
dent in the future catching them
offguard, Gross issued a memo
laying out guidelines. "Should a
situation develop where radio
active materials are released into
the atmosphere and individual
students feel endangered instruct
ors should provide the opportun
ity to make up work which is
missed," said Gross. There is no
evidence that the guidelines were
ever used.
As a result of the accident,
evacuation plans were formu
lated for students in leaving the
campus. The plan complements
local evacuation plans by get
ting students off campus and
into the designated traffic flow
to Interstate 83.
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