Rural northern Pa. town remembers historic flood

GENARO C. ARMAS,Associated Press

This 1911 photo provided by Paul W. Heimel, shows the aftermath of a flood in Austin, Pa. after the Bayless Pulp and Paper Co. dam burst. Friday, Sept. 30, 2011 marks the 100th anniversary of the flood that killed at least 78 people and devastated the once-thriving small town. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Paul W. Heimel)

AP

AUSTIN, Pa. (AP) — A flood is the last thing that some Pennsylvanians want to remember these days.

But in Potter County, residents are preparing to commemorate the 100th anniversary of a flood that killed at least 78 people and devastated a small, once-thriving north-central Pennsylvania town.

Friday marks a century since the Bayless Pulp and Paper Co. dam burst just north of the rural town of Austin, sending 400 million gallons of water rushing downstream in a tragedy that historians say led Pennsylvania to become among the first states in the nation to pass regulations overseeing dam construction.

"It provides a lot of valuable lessons learned," said Brian Greene, a retired geologist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Pittsburgh and an expert in dam safety and construction.

Every two years, he voluntarily leads a class of engineering geology graduate students from his alma mater, Kent State, on a field trip that finishes at Austin to show "here's what can go wrong if a dam isn't properly designed, operated and maintained."

The events Friday include a memorial service for the flood victims at the town square gazebo, along with a dramatization of accounts of the day from eyewitnesses and survivors. A documentary film about the flood will be shown in front of the ruins of the concrete dam, now part of the rustic, volunteer-operated Austin Dam Park.

The dam was 50 feet high and 534 feet wide upon completion. Its ruins are now divided into giant slabs with pieces of rebar exposed. Some parts are crumbling, weathered by years of north-central Pennsylvania winters.

But it's not all about grim reminders this weekend. There will be horse and wagon rides, a barbershop quartet concert and a tethered hot air balloon ride 200 feet above the ruins.

"We're also commemorating the spirit of the town and the fact that we rebuilt," David Brooks, executive director of the Potter County Visitors Association, said recently in front of the ruins. "And that's why it's OK to have fun."

Flooding earlier this month from the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee also concerned Brooks and other organizers. Austin is just over two hours northwest of hard-hit areas in Lycoming County, near Williamsport, deluged by the tropical system.

Organizers decided to press ahead despite the unfortunate timing. Unlike the flooding from Lee, the Austin flood was primarily a man-made disaster that still provides modern-day lessons, Brooks said.

"Here you have a situation that was perfectly preventable ... and we still ended up having that destruction with a disaster like that," he said. "And I think that's the biggest difference — that this was avoidable."

Austin turned out to be the second-worst dam failure in Pennsylvania, behind the failure of the structurally deficient South Fork Dam in 1889 in Johnstown. More than 2,200 people died after a 40-foot-high wall of water spilled down the Conemaugh Valley.

Twenty years later in Austin, Bayless built its dam to harness water from Freeman Run to power the mill that represented the town's largest industry. According to accounts recounted by the Austin Dam Memorial Association, the company ignored recommendations from the engineer to ensure the safety of the dam

A 1998 article co-authored by Greene in the research journal Pennsylvania Geology, also concluded that the dam did not have a foundation suitable for preventing underground seepage, which would destabilize the structure.

Survivors of the flood have died, though authors and historians have preserved some eyewitness accounts.

"There was a lot of sloshing. It almost ricocheted and rocketed on the hillside instead of a steady flow," said Paul Heimel, a county commissioner who wrote the book, "1911: The Austin Flood."

Damage also was worsened by logs and timber that washed away downstream from the mill. The debris moved slowly and dammed water behind it that increased in volume as it engulfed streets and buildings in Austin, according to Greene's research.

Another author, retired Mansfield University sociologist Gale Largey, said news coverage of the event at the time was akin to the coverage of this year's tsunami in Japan. Largey's book, "The Austin Disaster, 1911," is based on 135 newspaper and journal reports from the time period.

Some organizers and locals also say they see potential modern-day lessons with natural gas companies drilling into the lucrative Marcellus Shale.

For the Keck siblings, who grew up in Austin but have since moved away, the dam ruins represent a part of their childhood. Dennis Keck, 61, recently visited the dam with his older sister Susan Keck-Dynda and older brother, Frank Keck, recounting stories of how kids used to use the dam ruins as a swimming hole, using the rebar as a makeshift ladder to climb to the top of ledges that turned into diving platforms.

Their grandfather was reportedly one of the few people to see the dam burst while driving by on a road above the dam along a hillside.

Keck-Dynda is glad someone thought to commemorate the centennial of the disaster.

"It's a nice way to remember the people that lost their lives in the flood," Keck-Dynda said. "It's a good lesson for people too. The things they shortchanged when they built that dam ... you can see happening now in everyday life where you're promised a town lots of jobs and you didn't really put the money into it to keep people safe."

The memorial association bought the property in the 1990s and turned it into the current park.

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Online:

Austin Flood Centennial: http://www.austin2011.com