Remembering Hurricane Agnes 50 years later (part 1)

I was in my late teens when Hurricane Agnes bought devastating flooding to the Mid-Atlantic United States. I do remember all the rain, and was fortunate that I did not personally experience the flooding. I have never lived in Pennsylvania but I do recall hearing about the devastating flooding in that State as well as in New York, Maryland, and Virginia. 

 

Direct link to video (part 1) from PennLive on YouTube

Direct link to video (part 2) from PennLive on YouTube

The Capital Weather Gang of the Washington Post wrote a nice article about Agnes on June 19th. It is my intention to make a gift of this article for fourteen days from the date of this post, hopefully eliminating the paywall for that period, if you are arriving after July 6th there may be a paywall. If you can, please take the time to read the article. Agnes first made landfall on the Florida panhandle then moved inland up the coast before emerging into the Atlantic off North Carolina where it eventually merged with another weather system. Agnes continued up the east coast making it last landfall on Long Island on June 22, 1972. There was major flooding on many rivers in the Mid-Atlantic, some of those records still stand today. Damages were $3.1 billion, 128 people died and tens of thousands of people homes were severely damaged by flood waters or destroyed.

Please, turn around and do not drown. Pay attention to warnings from your weather service if a hurricane, tropical storm or major rain event is headed your way. Sign up with your local emergency management agency to receive phone calls and text alerts if a significant storm is headed your way and heed their warnings.

The National Weather Service collaborated with other agencies in developing a website commemorating the 50th anniversary of Agnes, including event summaries, pictures, stories from survivors, and flood mitigation after Agnes. There is a lot of good material on the website and I understand that this website will be permanent. You can spend a lot of time on the website, so if you are so inclined you may want to bookmark the page for later viewing. Here is the direct link to the 50th Anniversary of Hurricane Agnes website.

Agnes ravaged the Eastern US in late June 1972. At the time, it was the most destructive tropical cyclone in American history. Rainfall from Agnes caused catastrophic inland flooding, with an immense geographic scale. Access the commemoration site here: https://t.co/YpWpO7Oqqi pic.twitter.com/cy7AwglSZN

— NWS Mount Holly (@NWS_MountHolly) June 22, 2022