8/1/71

There are very few times when we have a tremendous thunderstorm followed by rivers of rain and flooding that my thoughts don't go back to August 1, 1971.

For national historical perspective, that was the day when two concerts to raise money for the refugees from the Bangladesh Liberation War were held at Madison Square Garden in New York. Between the afternoon and evening shows, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and dozens of others raised not only a quarter of a million dollars for UNICEF to use in bringing aid to people there, but also they raised the consciousness of the world to the struggles in the Indian subcontinent. The movie and record of the event are still among the best of the early 70s, and this was the first time for fundraising of this type, to be followed by LiveAid, FarmAid, and the like later.

Back home here in Baltimore County, we dealt with torrential rain and flooding, especially in the area around Philadelphia Road and Pulaski Highway, on the east side. I remember being on many calls that night with my fire company, but hearing on the fire radio about the lives lost among members of the Cowenton Volunteer Fire Company (now known as the White Marsh VFC) and the Bowley's Quarters Volunteer Fire Company.


Charles Hopwood, 42 and Douglas Mueller, 18, of  Cowenton, and Milton DeSombre, 49, and Warren Schaeffer, 23, of Bowleys Quarters all lost their lives that evening.

Two other firefighters from Cowenton, Robert Carr and William Barton, were injured, but survived. Carr was carried away by floodwaters as he worked to attempt the rescue of four people whose Chevrolet was overtaken by the rising water from Bean Creek at Philadelphia Rd and Bush Street, and survived by clinging to a telephone pole downstream for 3 1/2 hours.

A total of 10 people were carried away by those floodwaters, and eight were to die: the four firefighters, a tow truck driver who had stopped to try to help, and three people of the four people in the car.

White Marsh VFC honors the
fallen men annually.

Here is a link to the National Weather Service report on the conditions of that Sunday evening. Things have changed. As the report notes, there was little time to warn people of the impending rainfall, and in the days without cell phones and personal computers, very little way existed to warn people anyway.

Now we can have alerts delivered right to our phones and devices, but one thing hasn't changed and never will: storms and floods will always be part of our lives, and so will the heroic efforts of people such as the crews from Cowenton and Bowley's Quarters.

Ackknowledge them, praise them, and pray for them, please.