CLEARFIELD – Fifteen members of the Clearfield County Water Rescue Team helped save 75 to 80 people from their homes that were devastated by the brown flood waters of a Bloomsburg region nestled along the Susquehanna River in eastern Pennsylvania.
There, the river has been walloped by the downpours from Tropical Storm Lee. Flooding was the worst in northeastern Pennsylvania since Hurricane Agnes in 1972, according to previous Accuweather.com reports, and likely to eclipse those flood levels.
Last Wednesday, the state’s Emergency Management Agency requested the Clearfield water rescue team be deployed to the eastern region. The team consisted of 15 members who represented the Curwensville, Sandy Township and Irvona fire departments.
“We expected to be there 24 hours. We were there for four days,” said Jerry Pollock, deputy director of the Clearfield County Emergency Management Agency.
The deployment touched home for firefighter, Marc Hatten of Curwensville who has family living in eastern Pennsylvania. When they arrived in Bloomsburg, he described the downtown as “empty” and indicated it was without electricity.
The Clearfield team members arrived late Wednesday night and so were sent out immediately the next morning. “We put our boat in the water, and you don’t really understand how bad it is until you see it in person,” Hatten said.
According to him, the water current was so swift, their rescue boat flooded and sunk. However, they were able tie off, before it was swept down river like many boats belonging to other fire departments.
“Trees, houses were getting swept away with people being left with practically nothing,” he said. Hatten said they’d saved 75 to 80 people, and Bloomsburg had a population of approximately 12,000 people.
Hatten said many teams were deployed from central Pennsylvania, and there was also assistance from the military reserves. He said everyone “converged” to help the residents there, and it was “heartbreaking” to witness their “pain and agony.”
Firefighter Bridget Kramer of Sandy Township recalled one rescue effort for which she was a part. She said an 88-year-old woman was evacuated from her home and was on stilts. Water levels had reached approximately a foot inside her home at one point during the flooding.
“While our area wasn’t directly affected, the areas from Clinton County on east were hit hard. We got the call from PEMA, and these men and women left their families and jobs without even thinking,” said Commissioner Chairperson Joan Robinson-McMillen.
The team members were: Shawn Fye, Martin Neeper, James Evans and Marc Hatten, all from Curwensville; Chris Leone, John Gearhart, Bill Wallace, Bridget Kramer, George Kramer Jr., William Cyphert, Dana Smith and Bob Wilson, all from Sandy Township; and Michael Knotts and David Warner from Irvona.
