The "When The Rain Refused To Stop - The Angel With A Bucket" Story

It was an ordinary day.  June 14, 1959 and the skies were filled with water from the Hurricane known as Agnes.  I have written a few stories in the past telling of my wife Carol and I heading to Pitney Road to the east of the city of Lancaster to help my Aunt and Uncle empty their house since the water was projected to rise over the top of their house.  Click on the left-handed arrow at the top of this story and type in "Agnes" to find other stories that I have written about during the once-in-a-lifetime-flood. All are worth reading, but I just have to add one more story that recently appeared in the local newspaper.  The story was part of the column called, "I KNOW A STORY" and appears every Sunday in the newspaper.  The story was written by Heidi Shelly Keller and tells her harrowing story of the evening when the rain refused to stop.  She wrote of her encounter from 50 years ago when she was using Buckets for Church World Services at her church.  She described her experience that June night in 1972 when Hurricane Agnes was making devastating history in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  She had stayed up all night, sitting cross-legged on her old cedar chest in her new apartment in Manheim, PA watching the weatherman on Channel 8 tell of the 11 more inches of rain that were expected that evening.  She was in deep trouble!  "I moved the chairs, photo albums, and family Bible upstairs and waited.  When the water started to come in my back sliding door, I grabbed my little puppy and purse and stepped out the front door into knee-deep water.  Due to high waters and detours, I had to drive 52 miles in order to reach a family member's home about one mile north of Manheim.  The next day I drove part way into Manheim on Main Street to see if my apartment was still there.  There were 18 inches of water on the first floor of my apartment, and no electricity.  When the water receded, men came with big flat grain shovels to scrape the mud out of the apartment rug.  Then it happened: I heard a gentle knock on the front door.  When I opened it, there stood a lady holding a bucket.  I do not remember seeing her face at all.  She asked if I needed any help.  I had never needed this kind of help before, so I started to say "no," but shook my head and said "yes."  That was hard to say.  She came in to help me clean my apartment.  Then, she seemed to disappear.  I never saw her again.  It was like she was an angel with a bucket who came to impress upon me the need to be humble enough to accept help."  Today Heidi lives in nearby Lititz, PA.  Her story can probably be retold by a multitude of other people who experienced Flood Agnes that June night in 1972.  I know that my wife and I will never forget that evening and the changes it made to those of us who experienced it.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.