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Flooding in Pennsylvania
With the news now about the severe flooding in PA, and with the thread about new car shortages mentioning watching out for cars caught in the floods: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215817394 I'd mentioned my search for my first car in 1972 and how we had to watch out for flood damaged cars from up north. So I looked for info on those floods. Surprise! It was caused by Tropical Storm Agnes:
Tropical Storm Agnes devastated Pa. in 1972: ‘Battered, lashed, flooded and paralyzed’
Updated: Jun. 20, 2019, 1:53 p.m. | Published: Jun. 20, 2019, 5:29 a.m.
By Deb Kiner | dkiner@pennlive.com
Heavy rain on June 22, 1972, was supposed to cause some flooding in the western part of the state – not here.
But, as it turned out, Hurricane Agnes, then Tropical Storm Agnes, had other ideas.
After the storm had been downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm, it began to move out to the Atlantic then curved back and pounded Pennsylvania with rain.
In the end, the storm dumped 19 inches of rain from Florida to New York. In Pennsylvania, the Susquehanna River crested at 32.8 feet in Harrisburg on June 24 – a whopping 15 feet above flood stage.
More: https://www.pennlive.com/life/2019/06/battered-lashed-flooded-and-paralyzed-agnes-devastated-pa-in-1972.html
Updated: Jun. 20, 2019, 1:53 p.m. | Published: Jun. 20, 2019, 5:29 a.m.
By Deb Kiner | dkiner@pennlive.com
Heavy rain on June 22, 1972, was supposed to cause some flooding in the western part of the state – not here.
But, as it turned out, Hurricane Agnes, then Tropical Storm Agnes, had other ideas.
After the storm had been downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm, it began to move out to the Atlantic then curved back and pounded Pennsylvania with rain.
In the end, the storm dumped 19 inches of rain from Florida to New York. In Pennsylvania, the Susquehanna River crested at 32.8 feet in Harrisburg on June 24 – a whopping 15 feet above flood stage.
More: https://www.pennlive.com/life/2019/06/battered-lashed-flooded-and-paralyzed-agnes-devastated-pa-in-1972.html
Agnes came into the Florida Panhandle at Cape San Blas as a minimal Cat 1 hurricane on June 19, 1972. At the time I was living just off campus (Florida State University) in an old boarding house and had friends who were living further out of town in mobile homes. We decided that the safest option would be to stay in the university library which was normally open 24 hours a day and was a designated shelter. But for some reason, the university decided to close the library as the storm began to really hit the Tallahassee area. The students who lived out of town had no where to go and ended up getting shelter in some of the student dorms. I had to walk back to my creaky off campus boarding house in pouring rain - my shoes were ruined by the time I got home. Tallahassee did not lose power or have significant damage, so we were very lucky.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Agnes
