1. Regina Slider

    My father was born on this day. I remember him telling us how the hospital had to use gas lights because there was no electricity.

  2. E.Toni Henderson

    My mom and dad were married just two years and lived in a apartment on the north side, my dad Rudy, recalled, his wife, Eunice,hollering at him from the bedroom that he should have woken her she was late for work and my dad said you won’t be going to work, look out the window. They could see the flooding from the allegheny river and its affect on the streets near their building were flooded.

  3. Nancy Neiberg Kosanovich

    My Father, Carl M. Neiberg, MD, had his Orthopedic office in the Jenkins Arcade, across the street from Hornes. My parents were married in April, 1936. The story of this flood was repeated over and over. It was a VERY stressful time for everyone who lived or worked in the flood zone. I am trying to find a photograph to purchase that includes the Jenkins Arcade at this time.

  4. Philip Bourdon

    That barge photo under the bridge is NOT from 1936. Just look at the cars as they are much newer than that.

  5. Christine Takacs

    My mother told her story of this flood to me several times when I was growing up. She was a young teenager in 1936. It profoundly effected her family and others living in the Braddock area. Her older brothers, Stanley, Frank, and Ted, had metal working and wood working tools in the basement of one of those row houses not far from the river. There was a sewer running underneath and they used a yardstick down through a pipe in the floor to see if the water was rising and it was fast. They hurried to carry all their tools up the stairs to the second floor. As the water filled the cellar they removed all the furniture from the first floor and put it up on the second floor too. The family fled to various friends living higher up in the hills. My mother was at a Red Cross shelter. Ted, however, decided to remain on the second floor to guard the possessions and with the cat. The water came up halfway those stairs. He had to be rescued. Men rowing a small boat from the Kennywood Park lagoon rowed through the front door, living room, kitchen, and got him in on the stairs. The cat was left behind with some lunch meat and survived.
    When the waters receded, apparently cleaning supplies were distributed and families had to scrub river mud out of the houses. But it was said, “No matter how you scrubbed you could never get the smell of the river out of the house.”

    It seemed to me that many Pittsburghers, who having experienced this flood as children, when looking to buy homes as adults, remembered it and made sure they bought higher up.
    As I understand it, Health Department officials predicted the spread of diseases, food and water shortages, and far worse conditions than actually transpired.

  6. Lanny

    cool history this is amazing

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