It sounded at first a bit like thunder, the crashing and squealing along Ellistown Road was an ominous warning and like the sound of a high-powered rifle it woke everyone up.

Instead of a morning like most others, were a bunch of railway cars laying on their sides and off the tracks. We used to watch these same trains go by and wonder where they were going to or coming from. The same tracks that kids would put pennies on and then watch as those pennies got airborne and flattened.

This morning however, the smell of fire and the hiss of the engine were center-stage. People along the rails started to amass and the gossip was now stories of where we were when the train decided to go rogue and collapse in our yards.

The winter of 1972 was brutal being mostly snow free until late in the winter when we got hit by 40 inches in one snow fall. Rare but not unheard of those snows and their snow banks were all but gone, And now this.

Just a few five to six weeks later the rain began and it buffeted off of our trailer relentlessly. Combined with the snows and late runoff the rivers had swollen and continued to swell.

After the rain had stopped the situation was dire. Rescues were winding down but the damage was unbelievable. Even the Chemung Speedrome lay lifeless in the morass of this event. And hardly anywhere but the hills were safe and some of them inaccessible.

Slowly in late June and early July things were getting back to normal in most places and this includes the race track that was in a higher elevation area. The sound of the PA System and the roar of the Late Models and Street Stocks made the pain and hurt of the storm, Hurricane Agnes, a bit easier to deal with.