Looking back at Johnstown flood of 1977

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. - Residents in and around this Western Pennsylvania town have commemorated the 30th anniversary of the 1977 flood that killed 85 people and affected thousands more.

The flood hit on July 19, 1977, when six dams surrounding Johnstown failed after more than 11 inches of rain fell in 10 hours. It marked the third time severe floods hit Johnstown.

"Officials said our river walls and other flood-prevention efforts undertaken after the 1936 Flood would protect us from the devastating waters that had battered and beaten us so badly in 1889 and again in '36," the Tribune-Democrat newspaper wrote in Friday's editions. "They were dead wrong."

This year, the newspaper and Johnstown Magazine worked together to publish a keepsake book, Disaster's Wake: A Retrospective of the 1977 Johnstown Flood. The newspaper was also working on a DVD with WJAC-TV called Looking Back: The '77 Flood.

The book went on sale in late June and 4,000 copies quickly sold out. Because of demand, editors said they are printing more.

In the Tanneryville community, which was hit the hardest, officials planned to commemorate the flood with remembrances from that day and a prayer service.

Presentations about what caused the flood also were planned.

Sara Noon told the newspaper she was at home with her 3-year-old daughter and 6-month-old son when the flood hit. She said she saw water running like a river outside her windows and knew she needed to get out.

"I can remember praying, 'If you show me the way out, I'll do the rest,' " Noon said.

Breaking through a bathroom window, Noon dropped a chair outside onto the house and a car that had washed up there. She lowered her children out onto the chair using bedsheets and then climbed out and across a collapsed roof to her neighbor's home.

Her home was destroyed. She and her children survived.

"They are adults now," she said. "I can't imagine life without them."