Remembering the flash flood of 1960 in Broome County: Spanning Time

When the weather gets hot, it is not unusual to see storms roar up quickly to bring a little relief to the people on the ground.

How often have those of us who have lived here most of our lives watched a sunny day become cloudy. Then we watch as those clouds get darker and more frequent with the knowledge that rain might soon be falling.

There have been times when those quick downpours bring a little more than just some welcome relief. Sometimes they bring a very quick form of disaster with downpours that can wrought devastation within minutes. In recent memory, many remember the 2005 flood, the 2006 flood, and the September 2011 flood in our area.

There was, however, the November 2006 flash flood that hit the region causing serious damage to roadway infrastructure, stranding people in the cars, and wreaking damage that totaled in the millions.

There have been other instances of such damage. One only needs to go back to Friday, June 17, 1960, to find such an event. Like many of these sudden storms, it was isolated to a relatively small area.

It was a late afternoon storm happening about the time when most workers were coming home from their day at the IBM, EJ and other factories scattered in the Triple Cities.

The newspaper would, the next day, state that this was the “worst in the recorded weather history of the area.”

I am not sure that this would keep that title for long, but on this day, the clouds opened with tremendous violence and unleashed three inches of rain upon the region in less than half an hour.

The downpour seemed to be mainly focused on the North Side of Endicott, the Lake Avenue area of Binghamton near the Endicott Johnson factories at that location, parts of Johnson City near Lake Avenue, the Town of Dickinson, and the Patterson Creek area of Endwell.

The ground and the creeks could not maintain such a downpour, and it created walls of water moving down on the residents in their homes, and the businesses located around these areas.

Water swept away local bridges over many of these creeks, entered thousands of basements, and pushed holes through foundations for some homes. Electric lines toppled and gas service was interrupted by the storm. The flood water was blamed for a fire that consumed a house and mobile home owned by the Town of Union Highway Superintendent in Endwell. Telephone service for 700 families was lost.

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The Little Choconut Creek overflowed into the Lake Avenue region, coming off the hilltops nearby and racing across the homes and taking out a bridge at the intersection of Harry L. Drive and Virgina Avenue just after a passenger bus had driven across it.

The flood waters swept down from the North Side of Endicott and entered the factories of both IBM and Endicott Johnson. IBM suffered damage totaling $2 million, while EJ incurred about $500,000 in damages.

The usually calm Patterson Creek in Endwell became a raging torrent, picking up cars and debris while forcing between 20 and 50 families to evacuate their homes and find safety as the flood waters ruined their homes. While devastation reigned that afternoon, one trooper guarding the muddied homes of Lawnsdale Street found a washing machine still running despite the mess around it.

When the storm alleviated, leaving 10 miles of damaged street, cars, and lives, the total damage estimate was around three million dollars. Thirty minutes to watch so much get ruined.

Nelson Rockefeller, New York's governor at the time, came to inspect the storm damage while he was in the area to attend a function honoring Republican dealmaker Billy Hill.

Residents poured out their emotions on the state official hoping for some relief from the cleanup and the expenses of putting their lives together again.

Luckily, there were only a couple of injuries related to the storm, but restoring train tracks, bridges and streets would take much longer.

When the weather is calm it pulls us into a false sense that everything is safe and secure.

Mother Nature can be a cruel creature, and the adage is true, it’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.

Gerald Smith is a former Broome County historian. Email him at historysmiths@stny.rr.com.

This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Flash flood ripped through Binghamton area in 1960: Spanning Time