CONTRIBUTORS |
- Bill Liles - |
- Opening Page
- Albert J. Pollen
- Jim Kissane
- Carol Palmer
- Candace Dettweiler
- Ben Carpenter
- Lisa Kerbein Dever
- Carol Sondersted
DeBaets - Bill Liles
- Bill McDonald
- Janis Wood-Peckham
- Lori Robinson
- Mary Evans
- Sam Leonard
- Michelle Kelly
- anonymous
- Arlene Hall Middleton
- Edward La Mura
- Irene Fadis
- Michael Smith
I lived in Wellsburg in an old house at 123 Front Street, next to the fire house. In fact, a picture of my house was in the Star-Gazette with the water up to the top of the porch.
On the morning of June 23rd I woke up about 7:30 am because I thought I heard water sloshing around outside. I looked out and saw that the yard was flooded. I would say that it was about 1 foot deep. I woke up my mother and she told me and my brothers and sister to start moving everything we could to the 2nd floor of the house.
On the morning of June 23rd I woke up about 7:30 am because I thought I heard water sloshing around outside. I looked out and saw that the yard was flooded. I would say that it was about 1 foot deep. I woke up my mother and she told me and my brothers and sister to start moving everything we could to the 2nd floor of the house.
At about 8:30 am she sent my sister to my neighbor's house to call my dad home from work. By that time the water was up to my sister's waist. We continued to move stuff upstairs. At 9:15 am the water broke through the dike on Bentley Creek just south of the Front Street Bridge. By the time my dad got home at 10:00 am the water was up to the floor on the front porch. We had to be rescued by firemen in a rowboat. I believe that we were the last ones to cross the Front Street Bridge because shortly after that the flood took out the bridge.
We ended up with 8 feet of water in the house. There was a mobile home next door to our house that was swept off its foundation and pushed toward our house. If it weren't for a 2 inch diameter crabapple tree next to our house it would have crashed through the house and we would have lost everything. I was only 10 years old at the time but every bit of that is still just as vivid in my memory as if it happened yesterday. Sometimes I still have bad dreams about it.