Terry Stone was 11 years old when the deadly flood of 1961 tore through Magazine Hollow. Stone and his family first took shelter in the white house (upper left), and then climbed up the hill to a chicken coop. He lost two relatives when a mudslide slammed into the chicken coop.
Gazette file photo
Cars and houses floated down the raging Magazine Branch after the cloudburst July 19, 1961. Much of the debris piled up behind Paul Cassis' grocery store, which stood across the creek on steel beams at the corner of Crescent Avenue.
Chris Dorst
Norma Levy, the unofficial historian of Garrison Avenue, has collected more than 40 scrapbooks filled with memorabilia. Her mom lost her home in the flood 50 years ago.
Jim Balow
Opal Bostic, 89, cook at the former Mount Ovas School, found one of the flood victims the following morning.
Jim Balow
Beatrice Taylor Gandy said her father, Alfred Taylor, watched helplessly as houses, filled with screaming people, washed down Magazine Hollow.
Gazette file photo
Army troops and volunteers shared the grisly task of pulling victims from the flood debris. Nine people died along Garrison Avenue and another 13 were killed on nearby creeks.
Gazette file photo
More than 138 homes were destroyed and more than 1,000 badly damaged in the 1961 flood, considered the worst disaster in the city's history.
Gazette file photo
A lonely dog finds a dry spot to stand after the flood.
Gazette file photo
A National Guard jeep heads up the hollow past the former Freewill Baptist church. The flood destroyed several homes that stood just below the church.
Chip Ellis
More than 10 years after the flood, the city of Charleston installed a storm drain system to try to fix the problem. The steel grate guards the entrance to the upper end of the 96-inch culvert.
Jim Balow
A memorial plaque at the upper Bigley Avenue ball field lists the names of the nine people who died the night of the 1961 flood in Magazine Hollow. Others not listed died later of injuries or disease from the flood.
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