Pittsburgh's Flood of Memories: St. Patrick's Day 1936
Fed by extraordinary snow melt and rain, the ice-filled three rivers crested at the Point that March 18 at the highest mark since anyone has kept track: Just over 46 feet. (That's 15 feet, or more than a story, higher than the last big flood many of us experienced in September 2004.)
In 1936, the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers were converging near Smithfield Street. Downtown below that was under as much as 15 feet of water that filled all the first floors and basements. It was the same in low areas up and down the rivers, from Ambridge to Vandergrift, where thousands had to be rescued from their second stories.