MILTON — Founded in 1926 by Edward Coup, The Coup Agency has been a mainstay in the Milton community through much of its existence.

However, for a brief time during the 1972 flood, the business relocated from Broadway to the home of Coup’s son Robert, on Upper Market Street.

Robert’s sons, Rick and Jeff, now co-own the business and vividly recall the days surrounding the Hurricane Agnes flood.

“The National Weather Service was saying this would not be a major flood,” Rick recalls. “The talk around Broadway, with business owners, ‘what are we going to do? How much are we going to get?’”

He recalls an amateur meteorologist with WMLP radio — Vic Michael — predicting “a major flooding event” was imminent.

“There was actually some push and shove with the National Weather Service calling and saying ‘you should not be saying these things,’” Rick said. “He just pretty much knew that what they were doing was wrong.”

As the floodwaters from the West Branch of the Susquehanna River approached Front Street, Rick said residents and business owners alike started to prepare for the high water.

“We started into action here at the office,” he said. “It became evident that we needed a lot of help.”

Family and friends of one employee — Len Little — were among those to help move filing cabinets, desks and other equipment to the second floor of the agency’s office building, at 49 Broadway.

A blind lady who was a third-floor tenant in the Coup building declined to evacuate, Rick said.

“She did not want to leave during the flood, even though it was advised,” he said. “She said ‘this is my home, this is what I know.’”

Another tenant agreed to stay and look after the woman.

Jeff said The Coup Agency building ended up with 54 inches of water on the first floor.

“We were two or three months without being able to have office hours,” he said. “We spent hours cleaning flood mud from the desks that couldn’t be moved before the flood.”

“To this day, I can still remember cleaning flood mud and what the smell of flood mud is like,” Rick added. “It’s this mixture of water, mud, fuel oil and a lot of other ingredients that come into play.”

During the initial stages of cleanup, Rick said only one or two inches of water was able to be pumped out of The Coup Agency basement over a six-hour period.

Soon, the Coup’s realized that water from The Capitol Theatre — which stood next to the agency at the time — was flowing from there to the agency.

“Finally, the fire department came and pumped out their (basement),” Rick said. “Water started to recede in our basement.”

In the days following the flood, the Coups were focused on getting the doors to their business open again.

“We were so knee deep, literally, in our work here, that we couldn’t go out and see what the devastation was like,” Rick said.

He recalls Broadway Hardware, also located along Broadway at the time, being hard hit by the flood.

“Everyone needed hardware,” Rick said. “They were devastated, but they were trying to do business as much as they could, to help out other people.

“The Standard-Journal was trying to put out a newspaper, because of wanting everyone to know about the devastation.”

The Coup brothers also noted that Rev. Phil Jones of The First Presbyterian Church of Milton held services in their family’s home for a time. However, the brothers were focused cleaning up their office space as the services were held.

While cleaning up their office building, the Coups continued to receive inquires from their customers.

“Our phone at the house did not stop ringing,” Jeff said. “So many people were calling about their homeowners insurance. I remember my dad (saying) ‘no, I’m sorry, your home insurance does not cover you for flood. You do not have coverage for this.’”

From the time Milton was added to an emergency flood program in 1971, Jeff said The Coup Agency sold six insurance policies under the program.

“One of the flood insurance policies was (sold to) someone on Park Avenue,” he recalled. “That’s about a mile from the river.”

Although water from the Hurricane Agnes flood did not reach that home, water pressure issues resulting fro the flood caused the cellar wall to collapse. Because the owners has purchased flood insurance, Jeff said the incident was covered.

Rick said the Small Business Association (SBA) offered residents impacted by the flooding 1% loans, in an effort to help them rebuild after the disaster.