The Susquehanna River floods periodically. Anyone who lives alongside it long enough knows that. Whether the floods are every fourteen years, or every forty, remains open to some debate. Few living in NEPA today need to be reminded of the Flood of September 2011. (Though you can still catch a few performances of "Flood Stories Too," a dramatic presentation of accounts of the flood at the Alvina Krass Theater in Bloomsburg. Performances run this Thursday March 14 through Sunday March 17 - hit the link for more details.) The Flood of September 2011 was brought on by the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee, which inundated the area a week after the remnants of Irene had torn through NEPA, dumping rain and bringing high winds. Lee parked itself over the headwaters of the Susquehanna, much like Agnes did in 1972. Until 2011, Agnes was the worst flood many people around here remembered. But members of an older generation speak of another great flood - the St. Patrick's Day Flood of 1936, seventy-seven years ago this week.
In late 2009 historian Philip Lord contacted me about a picture I had posted on the NEPA Blogs sidebar of one of the eagles on the Market Street Bridge. He had found the photo above and was wondering if these might be the same eagles. I quickly determined that they were, and tentatively identified the building on the left as the Hotel Sterling. He did some research and determined that this photo was from the St. Patrick's Day Flood of 1936. I recreated the photo in February 2010. The story of our exchange, and a link to his site, can be found here.
Some aspects of NEPA can only be found in old photos tucked away in books. Have you ever found such an image? Send us a copy, let us know what it is, and we'll use it as the NEPA Blogs header some week!
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