On June 19, 1972, Hurricane Agnes moves ashore in the Florida panhandle as a weak Category 1 storm. The highest wind reported on the Gulf Coast was a gust to just 56 mph at Apalachicola, Florida. The $10 million in damage in the Florida Panhandle was just a drop in the bucket.
Agnes’ main damage would come two days later as the remnants of the storm brought tremendous rains and flooding to parts of the Northeast. The storm’s remnants caused tremendous rains of 10-20 inches across Maryland, Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania. Richmond, Virginia was hard hit. On June 22, Agnes’ torrential rains deluged parts of Pennsylvania. The state capital of Harrisburg was inundated and the governor’s mansion flooded.
By late evening on the 22nd, Civil Defense officials in Wilkes-Baare, PA watched the rapidly rising floodwaters of the Susquehanna River. Evacuation warnings were not sounded during the night because emergency officials thought that a nighttime evacuation would be confusing. By early morning, evacuations were ordered with the river already at 33 feet and major flooding already occurring. By late morning, warnings were frantic as the area’s worst natural disaster in history was underway. At 11:14 am, sirens sounded seven short blasts indicating that the waters were breaching the thirty eight foot dike.. Nearly 75,000 people would evacuate in the face of the rising waters. The raging waters would flood much of the city.
Hurricane Agnes' five-day romp through the Atlantic seaboard made the storm the costliest natural disaster in the United States at that time. Total damage was estimated at $3.5 billion and 134 deaths were reported from Florida to New York. Agnes would produce more damage than all tropical cyclones in the previous six years, including Camille.
Agnes’ main damage would come two days later as the remnants of the storm brought tremendous rains and flooding to parts of the Northeast. The storm’s remnants caused tremendous rains of 10-20 inches across Maryland, Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania. Richmond, Virginia was hard hit. On June 22, Agnes’ torrential rains deluged parts of Pennsylvania. The state capital of Harrisburg was inundated and the governor’s mansion flooded.
By late evening on the 22nd, Civil Defense officials in Wilkes-Baare, PA watched the rapidly rising floodwaters of the Susquehanna River. Evacuation warnings were not sounded during the night because emergency officials thought that a nighttime evacuation would be confusing. By early morning, evacuations were ordered with the river already at 33 feet and major flooding already occurring. By late morning, warnings were frantic as the area’s worst natural disaster in history was underway. At 11:14 am, sirens sounded seven short blasts indicating that the waters were breaching the thirty eight foot dike.. Nearly 75,000 people would evacuate in the face of the rising waters. The raging waters would flood much of the city.
Hurricane Agnes' five-day romp through the Atlantic seaboard made the storm the costliest natural disaster in the United States at that time. Total damage was estimated at $3.5 billion and 134 deaths were reported from Florida to New York. Agnes would produce more damage than all tropical cyclones in the previous six years, including Camille.