Memories of the death and destruction wrought by Hurricane Diane never left people like George Kreitz, Linda Kelso, Brian Farris and countless others.
Reminders of that 1955 storm and flood and their effects can be seen today at area museums and archives as well as less expected places, like photos of that era at Vassi’s Drive-In in Hellertown, just off Interstate 78. Richard’s Drive-In in Palmer Township has photos and a small sign, “The 1955 Flood,” displayed on the order counter.
The Morning Call reached out to people who lived through Diane. Here are excerpts of their comments:
Joseph J. Gerencher Jr., formerly of Bethlehem, is a retired Moravian University professor who compiled a digital record of the 1955 flood in the city.
“I was born and raised in Bethlehem and was 11 years old, almost 12, when the flood of 1955 occurred. My family took me for a walk on the sidewalk of the Hill to Hill Bridge to view the flooded areas near and beneath the bridge. What I remember most is the view of the railroad trestle that is immediately upstream of the Hill to Hill Bridge.
“The railroad had placed loaded train cars on the tracks, apparently to increase the weight of the trestle to help resist the increased flow of the flooding Lehigh River. I recall seeing the water flowing just slightly over the tracks and therefore between the wheels of those parked train cars.”
Marge Oberly’s family lived on 154 Stark St. in Northampton, near the Lehigh River. She was 9 years old when Diane struck.
“It flooded from the Lehigh River into the canal that was there. We saw water coming up on the street. We had an old coal bin with a glass window.” Water broke through the window and filled the basement and first floor of their house, she said.
“My job was to sit on the top step of the basement and let my dad know it was coming up another step. The worst experience was the smell and shoveling the silt out of the basement and first floor. You had to wash everything down and get rid of the silt. You have no idea the stench.”
Oberly’s father worked at Bethlehem Steel. After he arrived home and surveyed the flooding, he loaded up the family and drove to her aunt’s farm in Orefield.
“When we went across the Cementon Bridge, the water was lapping over it. We were the last car across the bridge. We saw trees going under the bridge; that was the weirdest thing in the world.”
Helaine Sigal lived in Phillipsburg but was working in Downtown Easton in the summer of 1955.
With the free bridge broken in two from storm-related damage, large debris flowing downstream, and with the nearby toll bridge also flooded on the Easton side, Sigal stayed two nights with friends of her parents who owned a stationery store. She helped them clean flood damage at the store, which was closer to the Delaware River than where she worked downtown.
“It was sort of like a bittersweet experience,” Sigal recalled. “It was a bitter moment for the area, but I was doing something helpful.”
Leonard Buscemi of Easton, who was 17 years old when Diane struck, has written books about local history.
Buscemi recalled parts of Easton being without electricity when a nearby power station was flooded.
“But then after the flood was over, I worked cleaning up the [downtown] post office. The basement had military records and recruiting stations for different [military] services. The mud was thick. One of the things that always stuck in my head [was] the streetlights had big globes. You took a globe off and found a fish inside.”
Buscemi was heading into his senior year of high school that summer. “We did start school in fall of 1955,” he recalled. “Our football games went on like nothing happened.”
Mary Shafer wrote a definitive book, “Devastation on the Delaware,” in 2005 that has been updated and reprinted twice.
In it, she recounts stories from residents, and provides a wealth of information about the flooding.
Shafer, who lived in Bucks County but now resides in Martinsburg, West Virginia, has worked on preserving memories of the 1955 flood. She said people who live in the flood plain of a river are merely renting the property from the body of water.
“And every once in a while,” she said, “your landlord’s going to come calling.”
Contact Morning Call reporter Anthony Salamone at asalamone@mcall.com.
