A couple of weeks ago in this space, we looked back at the horrible flood of 1972 – forty-nine years ago. This week I thought we should look at a flood that has almost faded from memory, for it took place 86 years back, on July 8, 1935. That flood killed 44 people here in New York – about twice the toll of Hurricane Agnes.

Like the Agnes flood, it sprang up unexpecteldy, in the small hours of the morning. But in 1935 far fewer households had telephone or radio, and forecasting was noplace near 1972 levels, let along what we’re accustomed to in 2021. Many got the word late, and many never got it at all. On the Conhocton River, EVERYTHING flooded – Cohocton, Avoca, Kanona, Bath, Savona, Campbell, Coopers Plains, Gang Mills, and Painted Post. On the Canisteo, so did Arkport, North Hornell, Hornell, Canisteo, Addison. Hammondsport, Penn Yan, Keuka Village, Watkins Glen, Ithaca, Waverly, Sayre, Owego, Binghamton, Syracuse – EVERYTHING flooded.

Railroad webs were ripped to shreds in Hornell and Bath. The short lines from Greenwood to Canisteo, Bath to Hammondsport, and Penn Yan to Dresden all went broke.

The Bath flood took in the library, the county complex, two banks, the Catholic, Baptist, and Presbyterian churches. People used boats and canoes as far out as the post office. The V.A. was cut off for days.

Rushing water wrenched out the rails, steps, and other infrastructure in the gorge of Watkins Glen, and carried the gatehouse down to the Seneca lakefront. Damage barred any further vehicle traffic on Addison’s suspension bridge – it was pedestrians only until becoming a total loss in 1972.

All of “the Flat,” including city hall and numerous churches, flooded in Corning. Corning Glass Works was in the middle of a three-month controlled cooldown on the 200-inch disc for Mount Palomar. They lost the cooling for three days as they moved the generator to higher ground, but the disc came through fine.

Deep gorges were gouged out of roads near Arkport, and streets in Hammondsport. The Catholic and Episcopal churches suffered badly, as did the Academy. The Square in Hammondsport was flooded, and so was everything downhill from there to the Lake. Brandy casks were scattered erratically about, just like the rocks that washed down from the Glen.

Governor Lehman described the devastation as running from Hornell to the Catskills, and from the state line to the Mohawk Valley.

Ithaca got almost 8 inches of rain in 24 hours, with Cortland not far behind. (Normally our area gets about 36 inches a year, including snowmelt.) Norwich and Hammondsport had 6.10 inches. There were 8.52 inches in Delhi, edging out Burdett at 8.50. Ovid had 7.61, Oneonta 5.24, and Haskinville 3.35.

Avoca lost a lot of prime topsoil, and of course tens of thousands of people lost their crops, and in some cases their livestock. Of course, the fact that this was going on during the Great Depression made it all even more of a horror.

Red Cross, National Guard, and Salvation Army were quickly on the scene, and so was Governor Lehman. Help arrived quickly but FORMER Governor Roosevelt, now in the White House, was thinking more broadly, and farther into the future. We’ll see what he was up to in another blog!