BRADYS BEND, Armstrong County — Some family members couldn’t hold their tears past the welcoming remarks of the Bradys Bend Flood of 1980 memorial dedication, Saturday, Aug. 16.

The poignant moment was prompted by a statue being unveiled at the site of a home where six people died.

Six of the nine people who died the night of Aug. 14, 1980, were in the Custer family home, which was ripped from its foundation by raging floodwaters, according to author Lisa O. Zumstein, who wrote a book commemorating the disaster.

“There’s some days I still can’t drive past here, but now this place has become a place of healing,” said pastor Paul DeBacco, who delivered the opening prayer and shared his experience.

DeBacco said he had never shared his experience in the flood before last week. He recalled getting off work at 11 p.m. in Kittanning and going to an inn with a co-worker.

On the way there, he learned there had been a flood and asked his co-worker to get him as close as possible to Bradys Bend.

He was dropped off at the former Sugarcreek Township fire hall, where he ran into a high school friend. The man took him as close to Bradys Bend as they could get with the water rising, which was Snowhill Road, DeBacco said.

From Snowhill Road, DeBacco started toward Bradys Bend on foot. He said he began to hear trees crashing as he was traveling down the road and was swept up by a mud slide.

DeBacco rode the top of the mudslide down the hill in the darkness and eventually dug his way out when it stopped.

He then continued to a hilltop that overlooked Bradys Bend.

“What I saw in the lightning was unbelievable,” DeBacco said.

DeBacco described seeing his house lit up by the lightning. His wife and kids were supposed to be there, but the car was gone. His garage was gone with it, and DeBacco said he was in disbelief at the devastation.

DeBacco said it took a long time to trek to his house, but he didn’t find anyone when he ran inside.

He recalled opening the basement door to see a large mass floating in the water, which he thought was his children for an instant. When the lightning flashed again, he saw the mass was frozen bread dough that had swelled up in the water.

Finally, a neighbor came and informed him his family was safe, DeBacco said.

“I was afraid. Like a fear I had never experienced,” he said.

DeBacco recalled the first thunderstorm after the flood a few days later. He laid in bed with his terrified wife trying to comfort her, but he was also afraid.

“I was afraid to move. I was afraid to look. And maybe some of you have experienced that same thing throughout your life,” DeBacco said.

Zumstein said she spoke to 62 people who lived in Brady’s Bend at the time of the flood and another 20 to 30 experts, including hydrologists, topographers and coroners about the area.

Zumstein wore a blue ribbon to signify she was one of the people living in Bradys Bend at the time. She said she learned of the flood from the following day’s news reports and called her mom, who told her “Bradys Bend is no more.”

Others wore yellow ribbons to signify they are a descendant of someone who died in the flood.

Monica Andreassi said she was 23 years old — and seven months pregnant — when the floodwaters came. She said she had only lived in the area for a few months before the flood.

She and her ex-husband lived in Brady and went to Bradys Bend to help her uncle, who owned a bar. She said it wasn’t long before they realized they had to leave again in their two-door 1976 Chevrolet Chevette.

She said they got a little way down the road before the car stopped because the water was too high. The two put down the windows and began screaming for help when a man in a truck drove by.

Andreassi said she came up with every “stupid excuse” not to get out of the car, but she eventually allowed the man to pull her out from the drivers side.

Andreassi remembered feeling the water rush between her legs after standing up and thinking she was going to lose her baby.

“I could feel this road was like a river,” she said.

The man then picked Andreassi up around her knees and threw her into the back of his truck, she said.

“I remember hearing the dogs howling, I remember how it smelled, I remember hearing people screaming for help,” she said. “It was a horrible experience.”

The rest of the flood’s 45th anniversary event from noon to 4 p.m. included a presentation on the flood from Zumstein, food trucks, children’s activities and three books for sale about the flood at the Bradys Bend Township municipal building. The morning ceremony was invitation-only.

The people who died in the flood were Elrick and Bertha Custer, Jerry Potts, Betty Kaufman, Carol Ann Lege, Hester Crissman, and Wilson, Betty and Amy Robinson.