IT’S HOME: Kristie Bentley of Virginia Beach, Va.,
reminisces:
Sounds that mean home to me are oil pumps up Buchanon Hollow
during the summer when I would spend the night at my aunt and
uncle’s house.
“The sound of the creek behind my parent’s house. And the sound
of the trucks coming down the grade past my grandparent’s house
into Lewis Run. That and the trains cutting across the valley from
Hanley brickyard to points unknown.
“We used to sit and count cars on those trains. We thought that
was the most fun we had ever had.”
FLOOD ’42: Bradford is no stranger to torrential rainstorms and
flooding. But, we must admit, the deluge of 1942 in Smethport is
hard to fathom.
We had written about this record-breaking flood a few weeks ago
in ‘Round the Square and today we quantify the event.
A reader passed along some documentation about what is called,
“The Deluge at Smethport, July 18, 1942”:
“Perhaps the most extraordinary rainfall ever measured in the
world occurred in the unlikely location of McKean County, in and
around the town of Smethport, during the morning of July 18,
1942.
“Over 600 sheets of data were compiled to substantiate this
record. The rainfall, as measured by Mr. E. Hultz, located between
Smethport and Port Allegany, began at midnight July 17. Six inches
of rain fell between then and about 9 a.m. the following day,
ordinarily a flooding rainfall in its own right.
“Then between 9 a.m. and noon, another 28.5 inches fell. All
told, 34.5 inches fell in an 18-hour period, of which 34.3 inches
fell in 12 hours, and 30.7 inches in just six hours.
“No such rain intensity has ever been recorded anywhere else in
the world. Other station records in the area included 20.4 inches
in Emporium over a 12-hour period and 18.5 inches at Mount Jewett
in 18 hours. Salamanca, N.Y., reported 6.7 inches in 3 hours.
“Hillsides in the Smethport area were reported stripped of
vegetation to the bedrock. Eleven people drowned as a result of
flooding during this storm.”
LOCAL ANGLE: Herbert K. Danziger of Birmingham, Mich., writes,
“I recently purchased a WWI or early WWII leather aviator’s flying
helmet. It had the name ‘Mac’ McDowell, Bradford, Pa., written on
it. Would you have any information on this person?”
Certainly a lot of McDowells in town. Readers?
