Evacuation siren
Voice of announcer saying "Get Out Now,
Get out now, there is still time but this is the warning
that the river is starting to come over the dikes, everybody out!
work on the dikes has stopped..."
Agnes was the worst disaster to hit the United States
guitar and piano playing
At that time, the Agnes storm was the worst
this area was the hardest hit.
We had bodies disinterred from the local cemetery
that the river broke through and washed into the streets.
We had a major downtown business district completely destroyed.
Thousands of homes, we had one community where only
only a few homes were NOT affected.
When I got to the courthouse, I found that
With all the preparations Civil Defense had in place,
the one missing element was a Public Information Officer
to get the information out to everyone as quickly as possible.
And General Frank Townend, who was the civilian Commander of Civil Defense
asked if I would take the job.
Basically, he told me he needed me. So I
suddenly took on a career that
I never envisioned taking on.
Back here, where you see those tables
now, we had HAM radio operators
set up their two-way equipment.
There was only one working telephone
in all of Wyoming Valley, and so
all of the communications were by radio
State police radio frequencies,
the HAM radio operators, even some citizen's band
radio broadcasters helped us out.
Information was coming in extremely rapidly
from the various communities throughout Luzerne County.
And some of that information was questionable.
Civil Defense felt it was very important to have one voice.
Fortunately, because of a colleague of mine,
Ron Guillinardo, he started an idea that really mushroomed
Ron said, "Why don't you allow our
station to pick up your signal?
and we will re-broadcast your signal?"
That led to us getting thirteen area radio stations
onboard, doing the same thing every hour
quarter after the hour for five minutes
we would broadcast a newscast strictly
involving flood information.
You can imagine this area filled with people,
notes back and forth,
incoming messages from people in the field
worried about what was happening in a particular area.
Outgoing messages as to what they had to do
to address those things. And it was in those offices where we asked for
and got
some 10,000 volunteers.
to fill sandbags and try to stay ahead of the river,
We thought, up until the second day,
we thought there was a chance we could beat the river.
And of course, the decision was made
when we saw what was happening upstream,
It wasn't going to work.
We're going to lose that battle.
I went outside about that time and,
On one of my breaks outside, I saw
what is now the Veterans Bridge
washed away, I actually saw it crumble.
Then we sounded the sirens.
and a chill still goes up my spine when I think about
all the years I spent in broadcasting, and I'm most remembered for saying,
"Get out, get out now"
Siren recording plays
Recording of Dave DeCosmo saying " Get out, get out now"
There's still time to take your belongings,
but the river is starting to come all the way up
work on the dikes has ceased,
the water is expected to break through.
Police car siren wails
But, because of the timing of that evacuation notice,
and the decisions that were made by General Townend, Nick Suchak, and the people in this room,
thousands of lives were saved.
Unfortunately, property was lost
But, property can be replaced, and lives can't be.
Can there be a flood greater than Agnes?
Absolutely.
Mother Nature doesn't follow any rules.
To know what to do in emergency,
to know what insurance to have,
to know where they're going to get communications
when the disaster hits,
is lifesaving for the future.
So there are lessons to be learned from Agnes
There are lessons that are good for all time to come.