Among fatal Upper Makefield flood survivors, Koda the dog was a loyal, loved companion

Among the survivors of last month's fatal flash flooding in Upper Makefield was Koda, a lovable brown mutt that belonged to Susan Barnhart.

Koda was traveling with her at 5:30 p.m. July 15 when she and other motorists were caught in a catastrophic deluge on Washington Crossing Road along Houghs Creek. The rising torrent trapped 11 vehicles and killed seven people. Barnhart, 53, of Titusville, New Jersey, was among those who perished.

Koda survived. How is unknown.

“When I saw the pictures (of the flood scene) on the news, I saw her car, it was a Chevy Traverse,” said Scott Strange, a Titusville neighbor and longtime friend. “The doors were closed, and the four-ways were flashing, like it had been abandoned. And I’ll tell you, there was no water was in that car.”

Susan and Koda weren’t in it, either.

“What I figure is she and Koda got out, and I just know she was trying to help other people,” he said.

Helping people and animals defined Sue Barnhart.

"A sweet soul. She loved her mother, and she loved her dog,” said Chris Arndt, of Voltage Bikes, a shop a door over from the Washington Crossing Post Office, where Susan worked for years. “You know, she was the first person to welcome us when we opened.”

The last time he saw her was the day of the flood.

“She waved to us,” he said. “She always waved.”

Unmarried with no children, Susan had a wide circle of friends and loved animals. Scott Strange doesn’t believe there was an animal she didn’t like.

“I’d just helped her put a pump in her fishpond,” he said. “She got this turtle she called Ozzie. I don’t know if she found him or someone gave him to her, but she’d hand-feed him. The frogs, too.”

Nicole Meo, who works at Salon in Vogue, on the other side of the Post Office, recalled how she and Susan went to the Upper Makefield Fire Co. Carnival in April.

“We rode the Ferris wheel together,” she said. “She won some goldfish and she was so worried how they’d survive. She was such a sweet soul.”

Susan Barnhart, flood victim Titusville resident killed in Upper Makefield flooding known to always lend a helping hand

Dogs were her favorite, though. At the top of the list was Koda, a rescue pup. They were inseparable.

“She took him everywhere,” Strange said.

Koda was familiar to the customers at the Washington Crossing Post Office, where Susan would take him to work, usually on Saturdays.

“The locals loved him,” Strange said. “She’d have him behind the counter. People would open their Post Office box and there he was, looking back at them.”

Arndt, of the electric bike shop, said that Susan and her dog were so well-known as a team that someone had a metal sign made and mounted it outside the Post Office, “Parking for Susan and Koda Only.”

(The sign has been removed and was given to Susan’s mother, Pat, who could not be reached for this story).

“Koda was her baby,” Strange said.

In September 2021, when a tornado swirled past Titusville, the storm terrified Koda. Susan got him a thunder shirt, a compression garment for dogs that wraps them snugly.

“It’s like a hug,” Strange said. “It keeps them from panicking when they hear thunder.”

On July 15, Susan had Koda with her as she made her way to a therapeutic massage appointment in Newtown. The floods struck. She was found the next day. Koda was missing.

He was found the next morning, wearing his thunder shirt and dragging his leash a half block from the Post Office, headed that way.

JD Mullane can be reached at 215-949-5745 or at [email protected].

More: 'We've never seen anything like it': What they saw when the floods came to Upper Makefield

More: What caused the Upper Makefield fatal flash flood?

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Delaware River fatal floods took his owner, but Koda has been found