In 1972, much of downtown Athens was destroyed by the remains of Hurricane Agnes when she stalled out over the Elmira and Corning New York area, which sent the Chemung River raging.
The dikes put in place to safeguard Athens failed and the Chemug river dumped into Athens Borough. On the other side of Athens, lays the Susquehanna River but at that time it pretty much stayed within its banks and did not add to the flooding in the downtown area. The rivers never met in the middle but it was close from what I have been told.
I was almost six back when our town flooded back in 1972 and I remember seeing a house float down the river. I stood on the highway with my parents and watched the raging river, these are images I cannot get out of my mind and I prayed I would never see them again.
Our town got flooded once more, except this time it was from the other river on September 8, 2011. Water reached the tops of first floors in many buildings, and the second story on a lot of homes. The flooding broke out windows in the downtown stores. Raging water carried the furniture, which has sales tags on them, from Jay’s Furniture store out the broken windows and deposited them all over town.
The small brick medical clinic in town is destroyed, and the silt inside from the river is an inch deep within the mangles mess. That silt is everywhere in our town where the water could reach.
At the Croft Ford garage, a few vehicles sat submerged, as few doors down at the Dandy Mini Market lights in the building remained on for some time. It was torn down on September 14, 2011. I know its just one landmark here in town that is forever gone.
A pole barn under construction at the lower end of town had furniture and other debris underneath.
Garbage cans bobbed in the water as did a Salvation Army bin. Little tyke toys and play houses floated away in the water becoming giant buoys which landed anywhere the current took them. Seeing those toys bobbing in the videos, photographs and television broadcasts made me very sad. These kids have lost everything and to loose their toys well, that is a crying shame.
Kerosene, gasoline and oil spilled and those mixed with the raw sewage from when our treatment plant flooded have made this area very toxic The mud covering everything is this toxic mixture of it all. The stink comes and goes with the wind, but its all toxic. Homes and businesses are being condemned because of the damage of the flood waters.
When its all said and done I wonder which flood will be the costliest for our town, Lee in 2011 or Agnes in 1972.