VOL. 83 NO. 25 Photo by James Kozemchak Attempts to get a community back to something resembling its normal routine when everyone pitches in and helps. In the Back Mountain community, swollen to no one knows how many times its normal size by an influx of flood evacuees, these efforts have often been quietly heroic. Even as the flood waters receded, announcements were made that utilities, businesses, shops and in- stitutions would endeavor to provide evacuees. Banks Money, or the lack of it, quickly became a problem for many evacuees who had brought with them only limited amounts of cash. Local shops and markets cashed personal checks Sunday when the banks were closed, and when Monday rolled around, customers queued up at bank tellers’ windows to get much needed cash. At the Dallas Village Office of the First National Bank of Eastern Pennsylvania, Manager Robert Richardson could be glimpsed from time to time in Army fatigues and hip boots. A member of the National Guard, his unit had been called up to help out in the crisis. There were many of the bank’s officers on hand to oversee matters, including Thomas Kiley, Horace Kramer, Frear Scovell and (continued on PAGE TWENTY SIX) Frances Slocum State Park, through a coordinated program between the Penn- sylvania Departments of Environmental the U.S. Department of Housing and Ur- ban Development, will have a. trailer village established to house evacuees who have permanently lost their place of residence due to the flood. According to Park director James Zambo, some 350 to 400 mobile home trailers will be moved into the park, which is located in Kingston Township. Federally purchased items, the trailers will begin to arrive at the park Monday. It was Mought that minimum size would be two-bedrooms. At this point in the program, Director Zambo said he had not been appraised as Health officials are Concerned about Refugees, And have listed tips For those returning To flooded homes. Information page 5. to the selection criteria for trailer residency. “I believe it will be based on the num- ber of people in the family, on income, and how badly their domicile was damaged by the flood,’”’ he observed. Park personnel has been taking names of people who have signed up for occu- pancy of trailers. Their names will be forwarded to the Department of Commu- nity Affairs for official processing. Counting four to a family, the trailer village will house about 1,500 persons. Trailers will be located throughout the day-use area, near comfort stations and picnic spaces. Comfort stations are to be remodeled and will have showers, hot water and electricity. (continued on PAGE THIRTEEN) Next Sunday. Story page 26. DALLAS, PA. Phone 675-5211 FIFTEEN CENTS The Susquehanna River in Wyoming Valley crested at 40.60 feet. The dikes were constructed to contain a level of 37 feet. The two simple facts of those state- ments have within them all the horror of the worst flood in the history of the state. Of the five Middle Atlantic States hit by flooding, the Commonwealth of Pennsyl- vania was the worst hit. Within the state itself, it was believed that the Wilkes- Barre-Wyoming Valley area suffered the worst devastation. Gov. Milton Shapp and his retinue sur- veyed the area Saturday by helicopter. The Governor talked with Congressman Daniel Flood, who made his head- quarters in the U.S. Naval Reserve Building, Wilkes-Barre-Scranton Airport, and other legislators. All agreed that the area was, indeed, very hard hit. Rains which began in earnest June 20 had dumped 3.74 inches of rain by June 23, and there was no let-up of rain in sight. The continuing rains were blamed on the first tropical storm of the season, Agnes by name, as she made her passage through Northeastern Pennsylvania. On Wednesday, June 21, at 10 p.m. the river was measured at 4.30 feet by Nicholas Souchik, official weather-river observer at Wilkes-Barre. Slightly less than three days later, by Saturday, June 24, at 7 p.m., the river crested at 40.60 feet. : At 10:45 p.m. Thursday, the first eva- cuation order went out for residents of the dike area in Plymouth Borough to leave their homes by Friday at 2 a.m. The next evacuation order went to the hospitals. Nesbitt Memorial Hospital, using continuous lines of ambulances, was evacuated to Alumnae Hall, College Misericordia, Dallas. Some 10,000 volunteers, with a large number from the Back Mountain areas, fought a futile battle of trying to contain the river by sandbagging. But at 11:14 a.m. Friday, on orders of Gen. Frank Townend, Civil Defense director for Luzerne County, the struggle against the river officially ended. Further orders to evacuate followed in swift succession, and thousands of evacuees began to stream into Back Mountain communities. For the most part, the communities were ready for re- fugees. Quickly, major evacuation centers were established. Some of these ton churches, Dallas Methodist Church, Idetown Fire Hall, Jackson Fire Hall, Kingston Township Municipal Building, Sweet Valley Fire Hall and Ross Town- ship School, and Lake-Lehman High School. But many churches placed their evacuees in their parishioners’ homes. For example, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church had 750 flood victims in private homes. The list of residents who accepted friends, aquaintances, and even strangers in their homes is endless. Other sites set up to assist in rescue work were Alderson Methodist Church, Beaumont School, Bloomingdale Church Hall and Grange Hall, Orange Hall, Centermore- land Methodist Church, Church of Christ of Sweet Valley, Franklin Township Fire Hall, Gate of Heaven Church, Huntsville Christian Church, Huntington Mills Fire Department, Hunlock Creek Fire, Department, Idetown Methodist Church, ‘ Also, Kunkle Community Center, Kunkle Fire Hall, Kunkle Methodist Church, Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, Lake Silkworth Fire Department, Maple Grove Church at Sweet Valley, Noxen Methodist Church, Noxen Veteran Hall, Orange United Methodist Church, Newberry Estate, and Shavertown M.E. Church. As telephone lines between the Back Mountain and the West Side and Wilkes- Barre were washed out, a R.AIC.E.S. unit was put into operation in the basement of Dallas Senior High School. Charles Waite, whose call sign is WA3JWEF, headed Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service, a sub-organization of Civil Defense. Working with him were operators Bob Crane, Jack Curtis, Joe Davis, Charlie Taylor, and Clark Turner. For awhile, they and a radio communi- cations center at College Misericordia were the only means of keeping in touch with the outside world. Civil Defense personnel began to'get organized. The municipalities of Dallas Borough, Kingston Township,and Dallas Township worked together. Lt. Col. Joseph Ferko Jr., 358 Civil Affairs, Area B, U.S. Army Reserve, Norristown, Pa., served as a Civil Defense coordinator. He and William Berti of Dallas Borough were instrumental in setting up a central food distribution center at Dallas Junior High School, headed by William Scranton 3rd. Eventually, with volunteer aid, a Photo by Gary Van Scoy food and clothing distribution point wa initiated in the school. : As a system for cooperation evolved library----- such as transportation, housing, security-police, = health- sanitation, communications, and many, many others. From these means of assisting flood victims. At first, helicopters were used to bring in food and other supplies, such as cots and blankets. The noise of the giant choppers came to be a routine sound in the area. in the Dallas Borough building with Lt. As the general gave a recap of the situation, he told of the West Side com- force. military,” General Townend stated “as you have no security problem here.” He discounted a number of rumors, only one man had drowned in a Saturday noon accident. Two bodies were found in Swoyersville, but they were not believed to have drowned in the flood. When flood waters subside, it was expected that ad- ditional drowning will be discovered. For a period Monday, typhoid in- Annual Back Mountain Library Auction, In Wake of Flood, Has been postponed. A new date is to be set. Story 5. | «iy
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers