Flood anniversary events include survivor stories

SIDMAN, Pa. – Participants will have the opportunity June 1 to experience the Great Johnstown Flood from the viewpoints of those affected in the locations swept by floodwaters May 31, 1889.

The interpreted tour is part of a series of events hosted by the National Park Service and Johnstown Area Heritage Association to commemorate the 135th anniversary of the flood and honor the victims of the catastrophe.

“Throughout the year, but especially on May 31, we pause to pay respect to the flood victims of this horrible tragedy,” Johnstown Flood National Memorial Superintendent Stephen M. Clark said. “The events presented by the National Park Service and Johnstown Area Heritage Association will continue the long tradition of the community coming together in remembrance of the 1889 flood and the lives lost.”

“We are proud to once again be partnering with the National Park Service on events related to the flood anniversary,” JAHA president Patty Carneval said. “It’s a multifaceted story, and there’s always something new to learn.”

Events Friday, the actual 135th anniversary, include free admission from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. to the Johnstown Flood National Memorial Visitor Center with no reservations required.

At 4:07 p.m., the time the floodwaters reached Johnstown, park rangers will lay commemorative wreaths on the remains of the dam. The wreath- laying will be broadcast live on the park’s Facebook page.

Beginning at 5 p.m., names of the victims will be read outside near the Visitor Center entrance.

There will be children’s activities from 6 to 8 p.m. in the picnic area on Picnic Area Road and luminarias will be lighted from 7 to 10 p.m. to honor the 2,209 victims of the flood. Park grounds remain open until the conclusion of the luminarias.

Parking is available at the Visitor Center and the South Abutment. A shuttle runs between the Visitor Center and the North Abutment through the duration of the luminarias.

JAHA will light the Stone Bridge in Johnstown from 8 to 11 p.m. Thursday in colors and patterns that evoke the water and fire of the flood.

The interpreted tour June 1 will take participants by bus from the flood memorial Visitor Center to South Fork Hunting and Fishing Clubhouse and Grandview Cemetery before returning to the flood memorial.

Along the way, they will meet costumed interpreters playing the roles of pivotal figures in the flood story. Hetty Ogle, Victor Heiser and Clara Barton will tell the story of the flood as they experienced it.

Shelley Johansson, Johnstown Area Heritage Association’s director of marketing and communications, said Ogle was a respected telegraph operator in charge of the United States Telegraph Service’s Johnstown office at 10 Washington St., next to the Cambria Library.

On the day of the flood, she bravely remained at her post, sending messages up and down the Little Conemaugh River valley as floodwaters approached.

She famously sent a final dispatch at 3 p.m., tragically titled, “This my last message.” She went on to say she had moved her equipment upstairs because the home was flooding.

Apparently, moments after the post, the home was hit by the main wall of floodwaters.

“It really was her last message,” Johansson said. “She and her daughter and everyone in the house was killed.”

In addition to her daughter, Minnie, her housemates included her sister-in-law, Mary Elizabeth “Minnie” Ogle Hurst, who worked as the librarian at the neighboring library, and Mary Elizabeth’s grandchildren, Nathaniel and Emma Hurst. There were four or five others in the home, most of them likely Ogle’s apprentices.

Meanwhile, Johansson said, Heiser was home with his family watching the onslaught of rain and floodwaters rushing down the Little Conemaugh valley into Johnstown. He was sent by his father to release the family’s horses in case the barn collapsed on them.

After releasing the horses, he immediately watched the floodwall strike and crush the family’s home.

Heiser was sent on a harrowing journey down the valley, jumping from building to uprooted building until leaping to a building still attached to its foundation, where he spent the night with 18 others in the attic.

Heiser left Johnstown shortly after the flood, but made a name for himself in the field of public health, Johansson said.

“He developed one of the first treatments for leprosy before the advent of antibiotics,” Johansson said.

Advance tickets to the Interpreted tour are required, with registration available on JAHA’s website, jaha.org.

The final day’s events will also include a one-day special exhibition telling the story of the National Guard’s involvement in flood relief through artifacts and displays. Free to JAHA members or with museum admission, Desolation Reigns, is available from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 1 on the third floor of the Johnstown Flood Museum.