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Water had already begun spilling over the dikes in the nearby town of Portersfield on the morning of June 22 when William O. Smith, Olean’s mayor, announced that the National Weather Service projected that the river would rise 24 feet by the next day. One third of the population of Olean was ordered to evacuate, and the downtown district was already under water.
Fortunately, the National Weather Service had overestimated the amount of flooding Olean was to experience and the preemptive evacuation prevented any injuries. The flooding, while damaging, was modest compared to what other communities suffered.