Women Grab Bigger Piece Of Business Pie

Ada Giannini 
Jan. 27, 1996 
Ada H. Giannini, 71, Of Indian Mountain Lakes, Albrightsville, Died Saturday 
At The Leader East Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, Kingston.

By ANTHONY COLAROSSI; Times Leader Staff Writer
 Monday, January 29, 1996 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page: 1A 





WILKES-BARRE -- Frank Townend's office on the 14th floor of the Mellon Bank
Center offers a commanding view. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 There, below Townend's office window stands the Market Street Bridge.
Beyond that, the homes of Kingston. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; And there curves the water Townend watched and measured in June of 1972, in
the same way Luzerne County Emergency Management Agency officials watched the
Susquehanna River Jan. 19 and 20. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 And it was a view of which Townend took advantage. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Despite orders to evacuate the Wyoming Valley, Townend stayed put. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "I don't like to admit that, but I did come here to the office to work for
a couple of hours Saturday, during the height of the flood," Townend said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 It is was a defiant act by an 84-year-old man who knows something about the
Susquehanna River. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "Agnes was an important part of my life," said Townend, who, as the Luzerne
County Civil Defense director in 1972, coordinated the Wyoming Valley's
evacuation after Tropical Storm Agnes. "Generally speaking, I enjoyed a good
reputation on that account. As it turns out it's a happy remembrance." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 And with that view, how could you forget? &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "I don't like to downsize anybody's problems," Townend said, as he
reluctantly compared 1972 and 1996. "But we were lucky this time. We missed
the real flood by 3 feet." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 In 1972 the river crested at 40.6 feet, an all-time high. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 On Jan. 20, the area escaped widespread flooding when the river crested at
34.38 feet, but residents took part in the same exodus off the valley floor. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 On June 23, 1972, Townend ordered Valley residents to leave their homes at
6 a.m., about four hours before officials predicted the river would rise
beyond the dike system, which then stood at about 35 feet. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 On Jan. 19, county EMA Director Jim Siracuse called for a precautionary
evacuation at 11 p.m., more than 12 hours before the river was expected to
crest between 34 and 35 feet. The levee system at Wilkes-Barre is designed to
contain water up to 37 feet now, but Siracuse said the anticipated rise was
too close to call. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "If I had been there I would not have ordered an evacuation at 11 or 12
o'clock Friday night," Townend said, adding that he would have waited until
early Saturday morning. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Siracuse made the evacuation mandatory about 6 a.m. Jan. 20. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Siracuse said the hours of warning residents received this time helped them
to move their possessions to higher ground and prepare to pack up and leave. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "That's six or seven hours they didn't have in `72 to move their
possessions upstairs," Siracuse said. "I think that's what hurt people the
most. ... It would have been sheer pandemonium if we had waited till 6 a.m." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Siracuse added that EMA officials would have been "tarred and feathered" if
the public found out they had waited to call for an evacuation eight hours
after they knew how high the water was predicted to rise. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The two men simply view evacuation in different ways. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The way Townend made the evacuation call in 1972 is the way he'd do it
again. It's a decision Townend -- a former Army general, a former bank
executive and still practicing attorney -- calls the most important one made
in his life. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "We felt if we put people out in the dark, they would panic and they
wouldn't know what was going on," Townend said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Siracuse notes that the Valley experienced no major traffic tie-ups or
widespread panic in the latest evacuation. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The flood commanders of now and then also have philosophical differences on
sandbagging efforts. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Townend spoke proudly of the thousands who came out in 1972 to sandbag
miles of the dike system. "Really the community got together better than most
of us could remember," Townend said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Siracuse said sandbagging efforts during the Flood of '96 were isolated to
steps of the Market Street Bridge to shore up low points in the dike. Doing
more than that would risk lives and time, he said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "That's a waste of time, sandbagging the miles of levee," Siracuse said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Siracuse did not fault Townend's 1972 decisions because, he said, most
people thought the river could not possibly rise above the levee system back
then. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "Was he wrong back then?" Siracuse asked. "I would say probably not." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Townend was tempted to offer his wisdom to the EMA workers but decided
against it. "What I felt was that they didn't need me," he said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Townend realizes his evacuation decision in 1972 was criticized. But he
maintains it was the right one. "Some people thought we should have given them
a lot more advance warning," he said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "I don't remember saying, `You have to get out,' " Townend said. "I
remember saying, `We think it's coming over at 10 o'clock. You better get
out.' " &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Siracuse and other county officials stepped out of one television "live
shot" and into the next during the nervous, early hours of Jan. 20. The way
officials get the evacuation message out to the public has changed in 24
years. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 In 1972 it was Townend who conducted live radio announcements. He relayed
the messages himself, he said, because he did not have time to give the
information to radio announcers. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "I did all the broadcasting," Townend said. "Most people remember me for
that." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 But the most important lesson Townend said he learned from 1972 has still
not been put into practice. Dike improvements proposed nearly one-quarter of a
century ago are still not in place. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "I wish the dikes were higher. That's the main point," Townend said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 How would he label the delay? &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "I'd just say (it's) stupid." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 TIMES LEADER/BOB ESPOSITO &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Frank Townend recalls the events that happened after Tropical Storm Agnes
in 1972. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

'72 Flood Commander Reflects On A Judgment Call