Published: June 30, 2007 11:34 pm      

Faces of the Flood: ‘It’s tough to survive’

Latest in a series on the 1977 Johnstown Flood

In the wake of Johnstown’s 1977 Flood, employees of Royal Plate Glass Co. spent four days trying to clean up their work place.

Their efforts came to an abrupt halt at 9 a.m. on July 24, when an explosion nearly leveled the business.

“There wasn’t much of a sound,” owner James Epstein said. “Sort of a blue flash, a blue flame, just all around. It was just momentary.”

Under the direction of Epstein’s father, Harry, Royal Plate Glass had moved two blocks up Washington Street after the city’s 1936 Flood. The younger Epstein took over in 1955 after his father’s death.

The 1977 storm took a heavy toll.

“The basements were all filled with water, plus 30 inches of water on the main floor, which destroyed much of the machinery, furniture, fixtures and inventory,” Epstein recalled.

On July 24, the business still had no electricity. Epstein says the power company advised him to go into the basement and flush muddy electric panels so that service could be restored.

An employee carrying a Coleman lantern had descended into the basement when the explosion happened.

Epstein said he still does not know what was ignited by the lantern, since natural gas in the area reportedly was shut off. Officials at the time, though, were worried about dangerous levels of gasoline fumes escaping from sewer lines throughout the city.

The blast destroyed three of Royal Plate’s buildings. Epstein was standing in a hallway at the time; he said the explosion “shot us into the air” and then brought the roof down.

Shards of glass flew everywhere. In a front office, a bookkeeper and secretary had been cleaning.

“The floor disappeared from under them,” Epstein said. “And they ended up standing on the joists that had been supporting the floor.”

There had been 17 people in the building.

Eleven were sent to the hospital.

In addition, one man was paralyzed and another, 64-year-old Abe B. McCary, died a few days after the blast. McCary was planning to retire that September.

Although Epstein does not recall a loud noise, rescuers in the area certainly heard the blast and quickly converged on the business. Royal Plate employees were attempting to crawl or climb from the debris.

“The building was like a bomb hit it,” Epstein said. “You don’t just walk out of a building when a bomb hits it.”

Epstein was cut badly. Photos from that day show his pants, shirt and face covered in blood.

“They were trying to shove me into the ambulance,” he said. “I said, ‘I’m not leaving until everybody is accounted for.’ ”

He showed the same determination in attempting to reopen his business. Epstein rented space on upper Main Street a few days after the explosion, and he began to plan for a new Washington Street storefront.

“I started to rebuild, design, put together what is here today immediately,” he said.

Unfortunately, many of Epstein’s local clients have disappeared.

The ’77 Flood hastened Bethlehem Steel Corp.’s demise, and both downtown department stores – Penn Traffic and Glosser’s – are long gone. The 1980s brought rampant unemployment in the Johnstown area.

“It’s tough to survive,” Epstein said. “But the fact remains that I’m still here.”