SHADYSIDE — Curt Wach couldn’t believe it. He actually had to do a double take.

The 1991 Shadyside graduate, who still lives in the community and has two children in the high school, was riding through town just a few weeks ago and noticed a sign on the OR&W Fire Station that was commemorating the tragic ‘Flood of Tears’ 30th anniversary.

“I saw that sign and thought, ‘Wow! It’s really been 30 years already.’ It was hard to believe,” Wach recalled.

As he continued onward, though, he really began to reflect on that night in which 26 people lost their lives, while countless homes and possessions were destroyed.

And he ultimately thought back to the days and nights that followed in the flood’s aftermath.

Wach was entering his senior year of high school that summer and on the evening of June 14, 1990, he and his Tiger basketball teammates played in a Wheeling Recreation summer league game at St. Mike’s School in Wheeling.

“It was obviously just pouring down rain,” Wach said. “Having been inside, playing basketball, we didn’t fully realize just how much it had rained.”

Because of the weather, one of the teams scheduled to play after Shadyside called and informed league officials that it wouldn’t be attending. So, Shadyside was asked to play another game.

The game ended, the rain was still pounding down, but the Shadyside players made it home safely. Wach, who lived near Central Avenue, went to bed that night without an idea of what was transpiring along Pipe and Wegee Creeks.

“(The world) obviously wasn’t like it is now where information gets out so quickly,” Wach said. “I didn’t find out until the next morning.”

Similar to athletes now, Wach woke up the next morning, traded his basketball shoes for football cleats and headed to Fleming Field for workouts.

“I got there and started to workout and I remember other people and guys on the team talking about how there was a flood and it was really bad,” Wach said. “Still, at that time, I didn’t realize the true magnitude of how bad it was.”

Shadyside head football coach Ty Fleming called off the remainder of the workout and actually shut them down for the next few weeks as the community dealt with the on-going tragedy.

Wach actually joined long-time friend Shane Florence and his family as they made their way to what is and was known as “flood road” to check on Florence’s grandmother, who had resided there at the time.

“Obviously, phone lines and things were down, and they had no way of getting ahold of her,” Wach said. “I remember riding down there and we couldn’t even get to the house. We had to kind of like work our way through the woods to get there. Thankfully, she was OK.”

At that point, Wach really got a glimpse of the damage that was left behind.

“It didn’t take very long to fully realize how bad it was,” Wach said. “It became apparent right away that this was something that we’d never seen before.”

As Shadyside suspended its football workouts, Fleming asked the players to volunteer as much as possible with the cleanup.

“I remember Mark Badia was the Shadyside Fire Chief back then and he helped to kind of place the kids in areas where they could help the most,” Fleming said. “Obviously, we wanted to do something to help in any way we could since so many people had been affected.”

Anita Wiley was the mayor of the Village of Shadyside at that time and was truly touched by the football team’s willingness to get involved.

“After practice, Coach Fleming brought the team down and it was just so heart-warming to see these young men want to help the fire department,” Wiley said. “It was very touching to see these young men (doing their part) to help people. They were doing anything they could to help. It was just inspirational. The community came together and that definitely included the young people.”

With the Ohio National Guard joining in the cause and national media converging on Shadyside, Wach said the Tiger players weren’t fully on the front lines, searching for victims.

“A lot of us went down and helped,” Wach said. “Some, I remember, were making sure the first responders had water to drink, lunches, etc. Some helped families clean up debris or clean up their basements.”

That went on for a couple of weeks and, even then, it took much longer before any kind of sense of normalcy was realized again.

“I don’t really remember how long things (sports wise) were canceled for, but there wasn’t a person in the town who wasn’t affected, in some way, by that flood,” Wach said. “If it wasn’t directly, then you knew someone who was involved or knew someone who lived there, etc.”