F4—Lanc«i Saturday, August 18,1984 I pip 1 High water marks painted on the farm store pay silent testimony to the Susquehanna River's continuing inundation of Youngway's rick bottom ground, barns and farm homes. homes (Continued from Page F 2) Under torrests of rain pouring from leaden skies, the Youngs moved the milking animals to the second floor of a bam next to Ned and Molly’s house, the same place that had offered refuge to the family so many times before. “We never had water in that second floor of the bam up there,” Young relates. There, we were sure they’d be safe.” That was Wednesday. Waters continued to rise, rapidly filling the barns, the dairy store, the first floor of the house. Youngs watched from their refuge on the home’s second floor. Still it continued, the nver rising by feet as the rain fell by inches. Escape by boat Through the dangerous rushing waters on Thursday came local fireman, who loaded the family into boats and took them to safety with Ned’s brother’s family. When the river finally crested late that week, it had hit the 36-feet level. By early Saturday, the waters had dropped enough to allow the men some measure of safety in returning to the battered farm stead, a scene of almost un believable destruction and chaos. Immediate attention went to the milking herd, which had stood in up to 34 inches of water during those long, terrifying days and nights. Working their way through the shambles, the Youngs found some cows struggling in hay holes, where pressure of the rising waters had pushed up safety doors. With sheer force of back labor and Farming with river at door ~' s- *’ v '% f adrenalin, they hauled the disabled animals back up out of the square traps. Some were saved. For others, it was too late. Several had to be destroyed because of ex tensive injuries, and about a dozen total fell victims to the flood’s fury. Hand milking Although many cows had already naturally begun drying up production after three days of no feed and no milkouts, hand milking took hours. Miraculously, the electricity was operational; and later that same day a portable milker was located, easing the tedius job of working in the muddy, sloppy, crowded conditions at least a bit. Every tractor in spite of having been moved to higher ground, had been under water. Every motor at the bam, feed room, processing plant was soaked and coated with slimy ooze. The shop tools, moved to supposed-safety on the barn’s upper floor, lay wet, mud covered and inoperable. “Everything was just soaked, ruined. The store looked like it had been bulldozed,” Young continues. First major cleanup focus was in the milking parlor, where vacuum pumps and compressors required tearing down, dryout and some replacement of parts. It was a full week after the cattle had been evacuated before milking resumed with anything that even faintly resembled “normal” working conditions. Com silos were empty, and although the Harvestores had only small amounts of first-cutting in them, the water did not destroy that feed. However, the feed room, Hay floats away with its motors and button operating panels had taken many feet of water, and took days before it could be dried out, repaired and put back into usuable shape. Second cutting of hay, laying in windrows, had simply floated away downstream. July 4 came and went before the fields became dry enough to venture on with the lightest equipment. Then, before a tractor could make a single pass through a field, every foot had to be policed for litter. Bottles, cans, tires, garbage debris of every kind imaginable, even a tanker truck from a parking, lot upstream, remained in the muddied, sticky, smelly m m F OLD PHILADELPHIA ICE CREAM Featuring • Sidewinder 45 Concrete Pump • Up To 40 Cubic Yards Per Hour • Pump Up To 150 Ft. Vertical And 800 Ft. Horizontal CONCRETE SPRAYING SERVICE A Proven Wey Of Applying Concrete • Repair Retaining Walls • Strengthen Existing Masonry Walls • Reseal Manure Pits KEYSTONE GUN-KRETE 61 Poplar Street Gordonville, PA 17529 A full three-weeks-worth of work was necessary to clean up, dry out, replace parts and disinfect the store before the doors could be reopened to loyal, local customers. Although the physical devastation could be repaired over the ensuing weeks, the cash-flow nightmare was just beginning. There simply were no feed supplies. Com, replanted, never matured. Hay, both for dry feed and for reconstituting into haylage, was hauled in by the trailer loads. “And this was before anyone had ever heard much about flood in surance,” adds Young. Herd average drops Herd average dropped about four thousand pounds, from 15,000 to about 11,000. Many additional >■