The Floods: Two Disasters in Six Years
A River With a Temper
The creeks that once carried logs to market could also turn on the valley. Twice in six years, they did.
The St. Patrick's Day Flood, 1936
The winter of 1935–36 was hard and snowy. In mid-March, a thaw arrived, followed by two rainstorms in a row. Water poured off the mountains. On March 18, 1936, Sinnemahoning Creek at Sinnemahoning crested at 21.94 feet, almost five feet above flood stage, with an estimated flow of 61,200 cubic feet per second. It's still the highest crest on record there.
Downstream at Lock Haven, the West Branch rose to 32.3 feet, the highest crest there since records began in 1889. Across the East, the storms flooded the coast from Virginia to Maine and took an estimated 150 to 200 lives. In the Sinnemahoning area, men from a Civilian Conservation Corps veterans camp built a ferry so supplies could reach the community.
In Lock Haven, the mayor who lived through that flood was George B. Stevenson, and he spent the rest of his career fighting for flood control.
The Cloudburst of July 1942
Six years later, the danger came from the sky. On July 18, 1942, a storm stalled over Elk, Cameron, McKean, and Potter counties. Several places reported more than 30 inches of rain, most of it in less than 12 hours. The U.S. Geological Survey said the storm produced the highest crest stages ever recorded on the First Fork of Sinnemahoning Creek.
The damage was enormous:
- About 60 percent of Emporium flooded, with water five feet deep in Broad Street Square.
- Upstream on the First Fork's tributary in Austin, a paper company's reservoir dam was breached.
- The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad between Sinnemahoning and Austin was wrecked so badly that it was abandoned. In places, the track ended up in the middle of the stream.
- Across the region, 15 people died, and property damage topped $10 million.
From Disaster to a Plan
These floods made the case for controlling the West Branch at its sources. By the early 1950s, engineers were designing a dam on the First Fork. That story is on the next page.
Visit the valley in calmer times. Book Resting Eagle Cabin, about 25–30 minutes from the dam.
More Sinnemahoning history: The Lumber Era | The George B. Stevenson Dam | Sinnemahoning State Park
Sources
NWS Middle Atlantic River Forecast Center, Top 10 Historical Crests, Sinnemahoning Creek at Sinnemahoning: https://www.weather.gov/media/marfc/Top20/WBS/Sinnemahoning.pdf
NWS MARFC, Historical Floods, Sinnemahoning Creek at Sinnemahoning: https://www.weather.gov/media/marfc/FloodClimo/WBS/Sinnemahoning.pdf
NWS MARFC, Top 10 Historical Crests, West Branch at Lock Haven: https://www.weather.gov/media/marfc/Top20/WBS/LockHaven.pdf
StateCollege.com / Town&Gown, "St. Patrick's Day Flood of 1936": https://www.statecollege.com/town-and-gown/st-patricks-day-flood-of-1936/
PA DCNR events calendar, "Stories of Our Past: The People of the First and Second Fork": https://events.dcnr.pa.gov/event/stories_of_our_past_the_people_of_the_first_and_second_fork
Pennsylvania Senate Library, George Bond Stevenson biography: https://www.library.pasen.gov/people/member-biography?id=5538
W. S. Eisenlohr Jr., "Floods of July 18, 1942, in North-Central Pennsylvania," USGS Water-Supply Paper 1134-B: https://pubs.usgs.gov/wsp/1134b/report.pdf