Just north of the Pennsylvania border, the Genesee River flows through Wellsville, NY. Wellsville is the largest community in Allegany County, despite having fewer than 5,000 residents. It had closer to 6,000 residents in 1972.
The Village of Wellsville is a junction of foothill streams, including Dyke's Creek, as it feeds into the Genesee River. Dyke's Creek is what flooded the center of the Village of Wellsville in June of 1972.
After a particularly damaging flood in 1956, the Buffalo District Corps of Engineers built out a local flood protection project for the Genesee River and Dyke's Creek. The maximum discharge for the Genesee River was measured at 15,800 cubic feet per second (cfs) in 1956. In 1972, the river's discharge around Wellsville was more than twice that, at 38,500 cfs. The 1957 flood protection improvements were not enough in 1972, but they are thought to have saved millions of dollars worth of additional damage. The extreme flooding of Dyke's Creek was considered a 170-year event, and the extreme flooding of the Genesee River was considered a 125-year event.
The Town of Wellsville happens to sit in the Eastern Triple Divide, where three major watersheds abut. Within a few miles around the village, tributaries feed into the Genesee River (to Lake Ontario and eventually the Atlantic Ocean), Honeoye Creek (to the Allegheny River and ultimately the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico), and closer to Alfred, the Canacadea Creek leads to the Canisteo River (and onto the Susquehanna River to the Atlantic).
Wellsville was the location of the biggest single structural loss during the flood: the $1.9 million (equivalent to $13 million in 2022) west wing of Jones Memorial Hospital collapsed into the river. Construction on the west wing had only begun six years earlier, helped in part by an Appalachian Anti-Poverty grant. Fortunately, all residents and staff had been evacuated, and no one was injured. The west wing was rebuilt over the next two years.
Damage throughout the Town of Wellsville caused by the Genesee River was estimated to be $7,656,000 after Hurricane Agnes (equivalent to over $50 million in 2022). The damage caused by Dyke's Creek was an additional $4,960,000 ($33 million in 2022).
Adding to the region’s repair costs, the County Civil Service Director estimated that 29 of Allegany County’s bridges collapsed during the flooding. Within Wellsville, that included the Miller Street bridge and the Pearl Street bridge.
Flood: The Southern Tier's June 1972 Disaster: A Pictorial Review. by W.H. Greenhow Co. Courtesy of the Internet Archive.
This 1972 publication by W. H. Greenhow Company of Hornell shows the 1972 flood, including the devastation to Allegany County. On the page, the top image shows an entire car dealership's stock underwater in Wellsville. The bottom image shows a utility truck stuck in flood mud.
Flood: The Southern Tier's June 1972 Disaster: A Pictorial Review. by W.H. Greenhow Co. Courtesy of the Internet Archive.
This page shows the water levels washing over the bridge on Broad Street.
The bottom image shows a flooded neighborhood on Wellsville's east side.
Flood Insurance Study- Town of Wellsville-outside of Village. By Ronald Taylor. Courtesy of the Allegany County Historical Society.
This 1984 study published by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was written to help administer the 1968 National Flood Insurance Act and the 1973 Flood Disaster Protection Act. Their findings in this study and in the similar study focused on the Village of Wellsville would inform decades of flood control measures.
The study notes that the Genesee River has always flooded annually as snow thaw and spring rainfall swell. The study cites an average damage estimate to the Town of Wellsville by the Genesee River of $248,300 (equivalent to about $1.6 million in 2022).
Damage to the Jones Memorial Hospital on N. Main St. caused by Tropical Storm Agnes, June 1972. Page 6 of the Flood Insurance Study- Village of Wellsville by Ronald Taylor. Courtesy of the Allegany County Historical Society.
FEMA also published a study specific to the Village of Wellsville. This 1978 publication included photographs of the damage caused by the flooding, such as the extensive damage to the Jones Memorial Hospital as it collapsed into the Genesee River.
Flood of 72. West side of Pearl St. Courtesy of the Wellsville NY Historical Society.
This image, posted on Facebook by the historical society, shows the Pearl Street bridge, near the Jones Memorial Hospital, over the Genesee River. One commenter, citing the foreman working at the scene in 1972, explained that the construction company (L.C. Whitford) had attempted to save the east bank from further erosion. The hospital was on the east bank, and the intent was to use the soon-to-collapse bridge to shield the bank from the floodwaters. Instead, the collapsed bridge simply funneled more water toward the hospital's foundation.
Flood of 72. Trying to prevent the banks from collapsing any further. Courtesy of the Wellsville NY Historical Society.
This photo, also shared by the Wellsville NY Historical Society on Facebook, shows efforts made by residents to shore up the riverbank as the flooding worsened. The L.C. Whitford company carefully placed cars along the riverbank to prevent erosion.
Dwight Allen, a Wellsville resident whose father placed the cars, commented that this bridge was considered extremely important because it carried the telephone line to Olean, NY. If and when the bridge collapsed, so would communication to thousands of people. Allen notes that Raleigh Colegrove, working for the phone company, ingeniously used his brother's bow to shoot a new cable across the river to reestablish telephone line connectivity.
ICYMI: Me and My Uncle, Remembering the Flood of 1972 as an Emerald, The Wellsville Sun (Wellsville), May 10, 2022. Courtesy of Andrew Harris and the Wellsville Sun.
In this article of reminiscences written by Andrew Harris on behalf of his older relatives, Harris shares the story of the hospital's collapse. He mentions that the hospital did not have power or lights, and the maternity ward was in crisis as a healthy baby was born despite the power outage. Firefighters from the Emerald Hook and Ladder Company were sent into the hospital's basement to retrieve expensive generators.