Flood waters drowned out the 47th annual Northern Indiana 'Power of the Past' weeklong event

WINAMAC, Ind. -- Flood waters drowned out the 47th annual Northern Indiana 'Power of the Past' weeklong event that would have started today, July 18.

This is just the second time in the events history since 1976 that it has been cancelled due to weather.

“It’s really disheartening not to be able to have it. It’s almost like we are letting down the community because we are not able to do it,” said Club President John Crist, disappointed about the floods.

After talking to Crist, the former president, who is 85 years old and has been involved since year three of the event, he is eager each year.

“Oh yes, yeah, I look forward to it every year,” Josh Wilder said grinning.

What draws people in besides the big and old farm equipment, the food, and the tractors; is the location that is within a beautiful nature park surrounded by a river.

“The river scene. There’s not another show around that has the river in the background flowing,” Crist says. The river that usually surrounds the outskirts of the property now consumes the grounds.

The water by the river is typically feet below, but when ABC57 took a measurement, they are at about 16 inches of flood water.

This week has attendance in the thousands and causes traffic throughout the small town. The town is tight knit with only two thousand residents. Community leaders know that there’s an economic impact when the event takes place.

“They couldn’t figure out why one of the years was so down for economic reasons. After going back and studying, they found out that was the year we had our first flood,” Crist details about a meeting in 2015 when the first cancellation because of weather happened.

It’s not just the event, but local restaurants too. Jenny Kasten, owner of One Eyed Jack stated, “We plan for it months ahead you know, staffing, stocking, everyone knows there’s no vacation days, no time off during the week, it’s a huge week for us.”

Next year will bring in nearly 60 thousand people to the Winamac Town Park.

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