Tanneryville man remembers devastation from 1977 Johnstown Flood

WEST TAYLOR TOWNSHIP -- There are countless stories to tell from the 1977 flood, which happened 40 years ago this week. And one area hit the hardest was Tanneryville.

Out of the 85 people who died in the flood, nearly half lived in Tanneryville.

The memories of that event are still fresh in the mind of Ed Cernic Sr.

"I had a gas station here at one time,” Cernic said. “And when the floodwaters hit, it wiped out my doors, all the vehicles and everything in, like the motorcycles. And the water was approximately this high here and all over," he said, as he motioned to his chest level.

Cernic lived in Tanneryville then and still does.

He keeps photos from the destruction the water left behind.

"You can see where the person is holding the rope so they could get across there," he said, pointing to one of the photos.

Cernic was in his auto shop with his three sons when the water came rushing down the hill.

"We could hear the water running behind the wall. And so I decided I'd get a hammer and chisel and put a little hole in the bottom of the wall. And when I did that, the water shot across our floor," he said.

He said eventually, the motorcycles in the garage were all floating in the water.

"When you have a downfall of water like we had, all at one time, something had to give,” Cernic said.

What gave way was the Laurel Run Dam. Rushing water devastated the community of Tanneryville and continued rushing to the city of Johnstown.

"It backed up all that water. Can you imagine that basin here clear full of water?” Cernic said, pointing to the flood walls below. “And it was clear full, going straight up through there."

He and his sons even helped one man who was stuck outside his shop.

"He was stuck in, like, a gully out there,” Cernic said. “So I told my son, go out there and get the tow truck. Go out there and get him out of that and pull him up to safety. And he was listening to the ballgame. He said, 'I'm all set.' He said, 'Thank you very much. I'm all set.'"

It wasn’t just one man Cernic helped that day. A week later, he and four others organized the Tanneryville Flood Recovery Association. Cernic was chairman of the board.

"This here was a schoolteacher. This man here worked for Cablevision,” said Cernic, pointing to a framed picture of the committee. “She was a housewife. And he was a steelworker, as I was, in the picture."

The association got funding from different organizations and churches totaling $125,000. There was one stipulation, however.

"We wanted to give it to the people that were there before the flood and wanted to rebuild after the flood and stay," Cernic said.

He said communities all around were calling the committee to see how it was handling the destruction and cleanup.

"We wanted to help out, no matter what it was,” Cernic said. “Whether it was helping rebuild their homes or their lives, something that would make them smile again, if they could."

About a year later, first lady Rosalynn Carter came to town, to find out what her husband, President Jimmy Carter, could do to help the community.

Cernic handed her a letter for the president and a few days later, while he was at work, he received a phone call.

"My superintendent come up to me. He says, 'Ed," he says, 'Get down to the office right away,'” Cernic said. “I said, 'What's going on?' I thought something happened. He says, 'The White House wants you on the phone.'"

Cernic was invited to the White House to meet President Carter in the Oval Office.

"After we was done talking, I said, 'Mr. President, how soon can we get help in our community?’” Cernic said. “And he said, ‘Sir, he said,'You better hurry home.’ And after that we shook hands and we left the place. By the time we got back to Johnstown, we had federal officials all over the place, looking for spaces to put offices and stuff in, giving SBA (Small Business Administration) loans, everything, whatever people needed."

But through it all, Cernic never forgets the victims of the devastating flood.

"Forty years later, years doesn't matter. I still visualize a lot of my friends lost," Cernic said.

One man he worked with in the steel mill was Jim Schofield. Cernic talked to him the day before the flood at his shop.

"Him and his mother, and he had a pet dog, and when the flood was coming, instead of them getting out, they went up to the second floor and then they were wiped away," Cernic said.

It’s a tragedy Cernic hopes never happens again, but he said even 40 years later, anything can happen. And if you see something that concerns you, he said, you should speak out.

ncG1vNJzZmivmpawtcKNnKamZ56axLR7y6iamqRfqa6vusSrsK%2BhnKGybrnAp2SrnZ2auqOx0axknZ2mlsC1rdOipqdllqe8rnmQcm5wZZqkta%2B%2F06iup2WWobywsA%3D%3D