In June of 1972, a horrendous flood pulverized our area, when remnants of Hurricane Agnes stalled overhead and poured out torrents.

In Allegany County, just over the line with Steuben, a father and daughter were swept away and lost. Outside Bath, another man was carried off. A Gang Mills firefighter died, looking for the Bath man. Before long another SEVENTEEN were dead in the Gang Mills-Painted Post-Riverside-Corning City-South Corning crescent.

A day or two afterward, three men surveying damage for the Army Corps of Engineers were killed in Hornell, when their helicopter struck utility lines.

The Canisteo, Conhocton, Tuscarora and Tioga all crested at about the same time, just where they were joining (in Painted Post) to form the Chemung. Young Tommy Hilfiger, watching from Harris Hill, saw the wall of water roll down the riverbed, and rushed back to Elmira to save the stock in his store.

This was America’s most expensive hurricane to that date. The Painted Post Methodist and Presbyterian Churches were condemned, and replaced by one United Church. Whole blocks were condemned nearby, replaced by a new shopping center. Much of the east Market Street area in Corning had to go. The Corning and Elmira library buildings survived, and so did Corning city hall, but the institutions all moved to new construction.

Corning and St. Joseph hospitals survived. St. Joseph’s sent its patients to Arnot, which pushed its “walking wounded” out and told them to make their own way home… often on foot. Corning Hospital, knee-deep in frigid muddy water, shipped their patients to the hospital in Montour Falls, stretched out in the back decks of station wagons driven by community volunteers. The Penn Central railroad bridge in Corning crashed into the Chemung, taking a line of fully-loaded coal cars with it. Railroads across the northeast went broke.

Houses and businesses were washed away, and some never found. Thousands of cars were under water, and though many of them were put back into useable condition, none of them ever worked quite right again.

Keuka, Lamoka, and Waneta Lakes all burst their banks. Parts of Bath and Penn Yan flooded, as did some or all of many other towns. Owego, Binghamton, and Wellsville were all badly hit. Corning Museum of Glass flooded, and so did Corning Glass Works, and most of “the flat” in Corning, and lots of Horseheads, and most of Elmira. Two radio stations cobbled together resources to get one transmitter on the air. The Corning Leader and Elmira Star-Gazette cranked out joint daily issues on a mimeograph.

People lost precious family treasures, and much disappeared from the records. A few years ago, at Steuben County Historical Society, we were called on to help a family find the grave of an infant sister. The funeral home in Horseheads lost all its records in 1972. Happily, we were able to help.

And then people shoveled out. Glass Museum professionals invented new ways to restore documents and artifacts, and their methods are still used worldwide. Amo Houghton announced that the Glass Works was staying put. Volunteers arrived from across the nation. Visionaries created new plans for downtown Corning, Elmira, and Painted Post. People started dividing time into two epochs: BEFORE the flood, and AFTER the flood.

Next year marks the 50th anniversary of “The Flood,” and memories are slipping away. At Steuben County Historical Society we are mounting a “72 + 50” campaign to gather copies of memoirs, diaries, documents, photographs… whatever (other than newspapers, which we already have) tells the tale of the flood as Steuben suffered it. We’re collecting county-wide, OR donate to your local historical society – and if you’re in other counties, reach out to your own societies and agencies there.

It’s often easy to overlook that Hurricane Agnes was a major national (another 100 dead) and international (Mexico and Cuba) disaster. But it’s also OUR story, right here. And we don’t want it to be forgotten.