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<\/a>Heavy snow and rain in March 1936 triggered the worst flood<\/a> in Wheeling\u2019s history. The river crested at a record 55.2 feet, 80 years ago today on March 19th, and floodwater inundated the Island, much of South and Centre Wheeling and even the downtown streets as afar east as Chapline. The Suspension Bridge and Steel Bridge were closed, and the Market Auditorium was converted to a refuge shelter and makeshift hospital. Utilities were shut down, supplies cut off, and disease threatened. More than 20,000 people were driven from their homes and 16 people lost their lives.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Front family of South Wheeling watched the rising waters of the \u201936 flood as they slowly swallowed Wood Street, filling the basement of the family\u2019s grocery store before erupting through the drain in the basement of the Front house next door. In 1936, the floodwaters rose to just a foot below the sill of the second story windows.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember so many times from other floods,\u201d Joe Front said, \u201cyou used Clorox and Lysol to disinfect while the water receded. The family raised 11 kids that lived, and there were ten of us at home, and everybody helped. And everything we had, we moved. We moved everything upstairs. You scrubbed and cleaned and, after a drying period, life went on.\u201d<\/p>\n His father Vincent had the foresight, perhaps from his military training, to prepare for the worst. When he built the store, he included a door and staircase leading to upstairs rooms where products could be easily moved to keep them safe from floodwaters. He also kept a sixteen-foot rowboat in the back yard behind the store. It was Joe\u2019s job, after he was old enough, to take care of the rowboat.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the \u201936 flood was coming,\u201d Joe said, \u201cand the water reached inside the house, we moved everything upstairs and in the store everything was carried upstairs. The groceries were moved and we just waited on the water.\u201d<\/p>\n The water came. And kept coming. The Fronts had to vacate the house. They climbed out a back bedroom window, over a laundry room roof and into the rowboat. Joe\u2019s older brothers took them by boat to a cousin\u2019s house (the Chmiel family) on 43rd and Wood Streets, one block away near Frederick\u2019s Grocery and Wenzel\u2019s Meat Packing Company. His brothers took Joseph for a boat ride the next day.<\/p>\n \u201cOur boat was about one foot below the second floor window sills at the house when we rowed by,\u201d Joe recalled, \u201cand we had about 12 feet of water in the street. Officially, the river crested at 55.2 feet on March 19, 1936.\u201d<\/p>\n After the 1936 flood receded (and during all subsequent floods) United Dairy and Continental Bakery continued to make deliveries to Front\u2019s Grocery, stopping their trucks at water\u2019s edge near the railroad tracks in a lumberyard on 44th and McColloch streets. The Front brothers met them in the rowboat. The brothers took the milk and bread up and down the flooded streets to sell to the families stranded in the upper floors of their houses\u2014Front\u2019s floating grocery store. [From The Wheeling Family, Volume 2<\/em>]<\/p>\n The devastating 1936 flood was particularly hard on the Pietras family of South Wheeling. When the water rose, the family took a rowboat to Wetzel Street to a path that ran from Polaski Field up the hill to Mozart. From the rowboat they could see packs of rats fleeing the rising water.<\/p>\n The family lugged baskets filled with their belongings up the hill. A woman who had 12 children of her own invited them to stay with her. \u201cThey welcomed anyone that was walking up the hill.\u201d Mary Pietras recalled. \u201cThey threw all these feather comforters on the floor\u2026One room was for girls and women and one room was for men and boys. Everybody slept wall to wall\u2026on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n When the flood waters finally receded, Mary remembered seeing a number of ruined player pianos lining the streets\u2014reminders of just how quickly and aggressively the flood waters had risen. Residents had tried in vain to move the heavy pianos to higher ground only to abandon their efforts as the relentless floodwater surged. Looting was common and many women lost the copper kettles used to boil clothing.\u00a0[From The Wheeling Family, Volume 1<\/em>]<\/p>\n When flood waters forced Wheeling News-Register<\/em> staff to abandon equipment for higher ground at their offices on 1500 Main Street, intrepid reporters used a small proof press to hand-set a crude but effective \u201cflood supplement.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nA Flood Story: Front\u2019s Floating Grocery Store<\/h2>\n
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\nThe Pietras Family<\/h2>\n
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\nThe Flood Supplement<\/h2>\n
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