1817: York
Spring flood kills 10 residents
The flooding Codorus Creek has caused damage since the days pioneers
built dwellings along its banks. But by April 1817, people by the hundreds
are living nearby. A spring flood takes the lives of 10 people, the
highest human toll racked up by any York County flood on record before
or since. One-estimate places the number of houses destroyed at 54;
another close to 100. "Nearly 50 families were nearly ruined,"
one historian wrote. "In short many people worth from one to
seven thousand dollars on Saturday morning were in a few hours
reduced to poverty."