1977 Johnstown Flood: WJAC TV 20th Anniversary Special (1997)

It was the third major flood to hit Johnstown in almost 90 years. It came as a surprise and shock to area residents. On the night of July 19-20 1977 a band of intense thunderstorms nearly stalled over the Southern half of Cambria County with the city of Johnstown almost in the middle of it. The storm is called a mesoscale convection complex (MCC for short) that are quite common in the late Spring and most of the Summer. This storm system isn't associated with any fronts. The storm system acted like a conveyor belt producing one thunderstorm after another and dumping its intense, monsoon like rains over the Johnstown Area. Meteorologists call this phenomena "training" because these thunderstorms follow almost identical paths over the same area much like box cars on a train. The storm dumped almost a foot of rain over a 9 hour time span. In some areas it was raining at a rate of 2 inches per hour! It caused widespread flash flooding with numerous creeks overflowing their banks. It caused 6 area dams to burst with the most notable The Laurel Run Dam that annihilated the small community of Tanneryville. In its wake, it cause death and devastation from Dunlo to Seward and from Windber to Dilltown and Summerhill with all points in between. In the end, the flood claimed 86 lives, with hundreds either sick or injured, thousands left homeless or displaced and caused $300 million in damage (about $1.3 billion in today's economy).

The 20th Anniversary special is hosted by WJAC-TV''s iconic, venerable, award winning and higly acclaimed news anchor Marty Radovanic. Marty interviews such people as Mayor Herbert Pfuhl, US House Rep. John P. Murtha, Ed Cernic, Larry Olek, Cecil Leberknight, Richard Mayer, Sandy Raebuck, Steve Richard, William Glosser, Andy Racosky and others as they share their insights, perspectives and first hand accounts of the 1977 Flood. There is a spiritual/religious hymn commemorating those who persihed in the 1977 Flood towards the end of this special. Special thanks to Media Xchange in Windber for making this possible.


Feel Free to check out my blog at www.1977johnstownflood.blogspot.com.

Thank you for watching!