Published: July 03, 2007 08:06 am      

Faces of the Flood: 'I didn't know if I was going to make it'

WINDBER — Third in a series on the 1977 Johnstown Flood



When the fire call came in, Edward Zablotney, a pharmacist by day, climbed into the engine and headed out with other Windber firefighters to a vacant home struck by lightning.

"I closed the store at 9 and it was already raining," he said. "I had no indication or inclination in my mind there was going to be a flood."

Zablotney, owner of Shafer Drug Store in Windber, had 10 months earlier paid off the store in the county where he was raised.

The 1977 Johnstown Flood would leave $40 million in damage across Somerset County, 40 businesses in Windber devastated, and Zablotney slumped on the floor of the fire department grateful to be alive.

Concerned about the intense rain, Zablotney, now 61, said he returned to the drugstore that night to move merchandise off the floor as water begin seeping in. As he turned to leave, danger was at his doorstep.

"I figured if we got a little water, it wasn't a big deal," he said. "At 11, I shut the lights off and turned around and walked to the front and opened the door.

"There was 2 feet of water. It came that quick. I can swim, but I'm no dummy. When it got up to my waist, I decided it was time to make a decision."

Trapped by the rising water, Zablotney quickly retreated into the rafters.

"I climbed as high as I could go," he said.

Outside, the swift moving water swept away postal vehicles, carrying them along muddy streets. Campers from a nearby dealer were dragged off by the rushing water.

Worried friends and family wondered if their loved one had drowned in the floodwaters. Zablotney himself was beginning to have doubts about his safety, pondering the real possibility the creaking walls suddenly could give way and send the building crashing down on him.

"At the peak of the flood, I could tell by the marking on the wall the water reached 7 feet inside the store," he said. "I didn't know if I was going to make it."

At daybreak, Zablotney said he heard movement on the roof.

"There was a plastic vent pipe going up to the roof that for some reason was never connected when the bathroom was put in," he said. "I had an inch and a half hole to the outside and started yelling and they heard me.

"They told me how high the water was and they had a ladder. I went down chest high into the water and found my way out the front door. They got me up the ladder onto the roof."

As many as 70 people had been waiting and searching for Zablotney, thinking he might have drowned, he said.

"I had a nice reunion with everybody," he said.

"The guys took me up to the fire hall, and I remember sitting down on the floor of the fire hall and collapsing, just being thrilled to death I was still alive."

Zablotney said he had no flood insurance to cover the $125,000 loss. A temporary store was set up in a 27-foot camper until the store reopened about six weeks later, after the securing of a low-interest loan. At a time when hope seemed callous, Zablotney said reopening in Windber was unlikely.

"When I got to looking at some of the damage to the other businesses, I thought, 'Why bother, just move on somewhere else,' " he said.

But he stayed anyway.

And today, Shafer Drug Store continues to serve the area.

"I didn't think we would be able to get through it," he said, "but we did."