Contributed by rkohler3 on 4/6/22 - Image Year: 1972
This flood is known as the Agnes Flood.
Hurricane Agnes actually began on June 16, 1972 in the Gulf of Mexico. It headed north, leaving death and destruction along the way, at times losing steam, but then regaining strength before moving out to sea. Still the storm bounced inland again, slowly fooding wide areas in Virginia and Maryland.
Then, downgraded to a tropical storm, Agnes arrived in central Pennsylvania on the evening of Tuesday, June 20.
A hard and steady rain persisted for the next two days, then the storm appeared to move north into New York. But first it took a side trip, turning southwest into western Pennsylvania, where it rained some more.
Reports say towns along the Juniata River suffered about the same flood damage as they did in 1936, even though the river crested at 42.1 feet in 1972, just shy of the 43.5-foot level of 1936. June 1972 was when people over a certain age in Juniata County stopped talking about the Flood of 1936 and starting talking about the Agnes Flood of 1972. (The text above is by Jane Cannon Mort in the Spring 2022 edition of "Juniata Jottings".)
