Harmony marks anniversary
HARMONY — It's been 10 years since the Connoquenessing Creek breached its banks and flooded the borough with up to 8 feet of water after remnants of Hurricane Ivan soaked the county, but Harmony has never been stronger.
Hundreds of residents celebrated that fact Saturday at an event called Rise Above the Waters. It included a parade and a walking tour of the parts of town that were submerged.
The beautiful skies and warm weather Saturday provided a stark contrast to how the town looked in September 2004. It was a time when many residents lost everything in the floods, which also almost entirely wiped out the business district.
What a difference 10 years makes.
There are more businesses along Mercer Street now than there were before Ivan, illustrated by the shops and the dozens of people patronizing them Saturday morning.
There was music, laughter and friendly conversation. The scene couldn't have been any more different from what it was 10 years ago.
Tom Ayres stood in front of the Center of Harmony business on Mercer Street, a building that had blue tape going across the brick in front of the shop to mark how high the floodwaters had been.
The tape on the business, as well as nearby buildings, was about six feet off the ground.
Ayres watched as a solitary bagpiper walked down Mercer Street, the first person of a parade that included students from Connoquenessing Valley Elementary School.
Ayres' house on Seneca Drive missed the worst of the floods, he said, although the same couldn't be said for the home of his daughter across town.
Ayres said he was “astounded” by the floodwaters when he woke up on Sept. 17, 2004, and described a feeling of helplessness as the waters continued to rise.
“We just stood there and watched,” he said. “There was nothing you could do.”However, a smile flashed across his face when he started talking about how far Harmony has come in the decade since.Residents and businesses rebuilt, he said, and the town came back stronger than it had been before. He was happy to celebrate that on Saturday.“There are still plenty of mental scars,” he said. “We just hope and pray we never see anything like that again.”Ayres also watched as Sue Casker and Marilyn Weyman, serving as parade marshals, waved to the crowd from the backseat of a passing car.The two women in 2004 coordinated the relief effort for those affected in Harmony, setting up an office in the Grace Community Church and offering hot meals, beds and cleaning supplies to those in need.“I'm amazed by the tenacity and courage of the people here to come back from (Ivan),” Casker said. “It's such a beautiful town.”Casker and Weyman said they initially didn't want to be in the parade and felt a little uncomfortable in the spotlight. It took some convincing, but both said they were glad they participated.“Today we truly got to see what this community has done to rise above the waters,” Weyman said.Resident Amy Pelletier stood in Stewart Hall along Mercer Street and gazed at dozens of pictures of the flood on display there.At her side was her daughter, with whom Pelletier was pregnant with at the time of the floods.She described the day as “overwhelming.”“I can't believe it's been 10 years,” she said. “It's just remarkably awesome how everyone has chipped in since then and made Harmony even better.”Resident Bob Slack also stood along Mercer Street and recalled his own story during Ivan.He remembered standing on the bridge on Mercer Street, watching as the waters kept rising. It was unlike anything he had ever seen.“I couldn't believe how far it had come up,” he said. “We had floods in Harmony before, but nothing even close to that.”Dennis McCurdy, the president of the Harmony Businesses Association, remembered how almost all of the town's businesses were wiped out.It was devastating to the economy, he said, and many people couldn't imagine rebuilding.“It was a rebirth,” he said. “Even now there's still a sense that this community is really growing.”
