State Map, St. Patrick's Day Flood, 1936
![](flood36J.jpg)
According
to an article in the Blairsville Dispatch, the United States Weather
Bureau reported that 1936 was the coldest winter on record. In many parts of
Pennsylvania, the ground was frozen solid up to four feet and the mountains were covered with ice and
snow. On the evening of March 15, 1936, rain began to fall and continued to
drench the state for 50 hours. Rivers rose very rapidly, overflowing into nearby
tributaries which could not handle the great influx of water. Mining operations were
compromised and work in a
number of mines, including McIntyre, was temporarily halted. Many bridges were
damaged or washed away and railroad service
was disrupted. Property losses were
in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Flood waters
covered a large part of the state. The Ohio River Valley section of West
Virginia, the southern section of Ohio, and parts of northwestern Maryland were
also affected by the flood waters.
Blairsville Dispatch, "The
Flood of 1936," March 16, 1936.
Illustration: courtesy of Archives
Department, Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Clarence D. Stephenson, Indiana County 175th Anniversary History, vol.2
(Indiana, Pennsylvania: Halldin Publishing Company, 1989), 519.