60 years ago Hurricane Diane spawned Tamaqua's million-dollar flood in 1955

The day before it happened, everything was quiet.

Aug. 17, 1955, was just another day.

That's because nobody saw it coming.

Nobody had a clue about an impending natural disaster, not even the weatherman.

In fact, the talk was about drought.

Hurricane Connie had swept through eastern Pennsylvania several days before, bringing desperately needed rain and soaking ground that had been bone dry.

As a result, the 10th Annual West Penn Community Fair kicked off in perfect weather.

Then, all of a sudden, clouds rolled in.

On Thursday, Aug. 18, rain began to fall. All morning long and into the afternoon it rained. Not plain old rain; it poured.

"I've never seen anything like this," said many of the old-timers.

By noontime, something odd happened.

Rain pelted the fair and folks decided to leave. But they soon discovered that rain had softened the ground so much that their car wheels were sunken in mud in the parking lot. Nobody was going anywhere.

Tamaqua ravaged

By 2 p.m., the Wabash Creek in Tamaqua began to overflow its tunnel beneath the business district.

Within minutes, West Broad Street turned into a river of raging black. Silt-water from Newkirk coal mines flooded basements downtown.

There had been no prediction of flooding in the weather forecast. Caught off-guard, people stared in disbelief.

But the worst was yet to come.

The rain kept pounding. Heavy, steady, relentless.

By 5 p.m., the Little Schuylkill River, rising all day, surged over its banks.

It overwhelmed many of the bridges in town, carrying logs and debris.

The U.S. Geological Survey later said Tamaqua had been hit with more than 9 inches of rain in three days, including nearly seven inches in 24 hours.

By 5:30 p.m., the raging river surged between 11 and 12 feet high and broke free in Tamaqua's Middle Ward and downtown.

At one point, the river extended from houses on Schuylkill Avenue to houses on Pine Street.

"I remember leaving our house on 120 Schuylkill Ave. with the river up to the backyard, and went to grandfather's house in the South Ward," says Glenn Fahringer, now of Valrico, Florida.

The town eventually was underwater from Lehigh Street in the west to beyond the Schuylkill River in the east.

Angry water

A loaded coal truck was picked up and slammed against the side of the railroad Comfort Station, or QA building, on Broad Street.

A Middle Ward garage was swept from its foundation, carried downstream and smashed into small pieces when it hit supports of the East Mauch Chunk Street bridge.

The Elm Street bridge was clogged with debris and the Cedar Street bridge was inundated.

The Reading Company's railroad bridge to the Greenwood branch washed away.

Eight Reading Railroad box cars were stacked like matchsticks and carried 200 to 500 feet down river.

Parts of Route 309 highway collapsed into the river and dozens of motorists were rescued.

The Pennsylvania National Guard was summoned.

All of the bridges in Tamaqua were closed and a state of emergency was declared.

Entry forbidden

The entrances to Tamaqua were placed under martial law. Returning workers from nearby Atlas Powder Co. were turned away.

The men and women were forced to backtrack through South Tamaqua and Summit Hill to gain entry via a road through No. 14 colliery and Dutch Hill.

"I remember the boxcars in the Schuylkill and how the river washed away half a lane of 309," says Patricia Hillegass Wishousky of Pottsville.

"It was brutal."

"Tamaqua was virtually isolated from the outside world until the floodwaters began to subside on Friday, August 19," reported the Tamaqua Evening Courier.

Sadly, an act of heroism cost one resident his life.

On Thursday evening, Henry H. Allen, 40, of 320 W. Broad St., saw a boy floundering in the surging water.

Allen tried to help, but was knocked down and swept beneath a car. The boy was saved.

"Later that evening, Allen's aunt, Mrs. Hubbard Allen, died of a heart attack upon hearing of her nephew's death," reported the Courier.

The aftermath

The headline in the Philadelphia Inquirer on the following day declared: "Tamaqua under Five Feet of Water!"

A follow-up UPI report stated: "Tamaqua, a community of 12,000 in the east-central Pennsylvania hard coal mining area, reported that waters which coursed through its business district at a depth of 5 feet last night had receded."

Damages were estimated at more than $1 million dollars, a staggering amount in 1955.

It was the worst flood in more than 100 years in the town.

Only the Great Flood of 1850, which swept away 40 homes and drowned 62 people, eclipsed the severity of the Hurricane Diane flood and what it did to Schuylkill County's largest borough.

The Hurricane Diane disaster led to construction of flood-control dams north of town and projects such as Tuscarora State Park, built for flood control and recreation.

There have been several floods since, but residents who lived through it say nothing compares to the "surprise flood" of 1955 and the fear and destruction of Hurricane Diane.