Many of the steelworkers in the town were of German ancestry which meant there were Brethren in the path of the flood. One of those who survived was Nannie Hanwalt Strayer (1863-1955) and her son Clarence who was four at the time. Years later she remembered:
"I was in the living room and noticed a rush of water with wood. As I looked, I saw people on parts of houses. I went to the rear and looked out of the bathroom window. All small buildings were swimming. All the houses around us were floating away....
"The houses on the other side of the street were all gone. The brick ones melted away. We thought our house would stand. Suddenly it was struck. The plaster came down. The front windows were broken. Water was rushing in upon us. Papa saw a hole and some light and climbed out; took Clarence up and then helped me get out of the drift wood.... We were sailing with the wreckage but did not know we were moving. Fourteen people were on our roof....
"The men of our party went down and helped to arrange a path that we could crawl out. All bridges were gone and our only way out was toward Green hill ... Clarence and I were getting along very well, I thought. A man with two children came and took Clarence on his back....
"We did no weeping until we came to a battered tin room on which fourteen dead people were placed ... a great crowd of people was gathered, waiting and watching for their friends. I felt ashamed to shed tears when we came to them. They had Clarence in their arms. They asked him where Papa and Mama were. He said, 'They are coming.' They knew we were alive."
Source: Frank Ramirez "Tercentennial Moment" for May 4, 2008
