Super 8mm footage of Tropical Storm Agnes flooding in June 1972

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Super 8mm footage of Tropical Storm Agnes flooding in June 1972 - Wilkes-Barre, Kingston PA vicinity

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3 жыл бұрын

Super 8mm footage of before and aftermath of Tropical Storm Agnes flooding in June 1972.
Hurricane Agnes (June 1972) was the costliest hurricane to hit the United States at the time, causing an estimated $2.1 billion in damage. The effects of Agnes were widespread, from the Caribbean to Canada, with damage was heaviest in Pennsylvania, where Agnes was the state's wettest tropical cyclone. The most significant effects, by far, occurred in Pennsylvania, mostly due to intense flooding. The hurricane severely flooded the Susquehanna River and the Lackawanna River causing major damage to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton metropolitan area. Due to the significant effects, the name Agnes was retired in the spring of 1973.
At the time of Agnes, we lived in Dallas, PA. On the day of the first flooding, my brother, JD, and I went downtown to the Susquehanna River levee on the Kingston side to help sandbag. We were there when the evacuation sirens went off. We both took some Super 8mm film footage that day. In the aftermath of the flood, our parents, Jack & Evelyn Miller, took additional movies of the devastation and beginning of the recovery/rebuilding process.
Recently, I transferred our old home movies to computer and created this short film containing all of our Agnes flood footage.
Scot Miller
scotmiller@suntomoon.com
214.535.0956
ScotMiller.com

Пікірлер: 16

@wilburythesage2734 2 жыл бұрын

Your footage is in phenomenal condition and adds new perspectives to effects of the flood between both Kingston and Wilkes-Barre. It is sad knowing that the charm and beauty of these two cities were not the same after Agnes, Wilkes-Barre in particular.

@jimgriffin9924 Жыл бұрын

If it weren't for the deaths, suffering and loss of the people in the area, Agnes provided the impetus for much needed demolition and urban renewal. The entire region from Scranton down past Wilkes-Barre has pretty much died after the anthracite industry collapsed. The cities were hardly charming. They were pretty run down. They still are. And that's being kind..

@thefrase7884 11 ай бұрын

@@jimgriffin9924…..miraculously only 3 deaths

@gfurstnsu 5 ай бұрын

I well remember this flood. It was not my first flood as a few years before when I lived in Fairbanks, Alaska, 1967, I was in another flood of this type. I remember thinking at the time that the rain reminded me of that event, I called it “Flood Rain”. Now here I was in central Pennsylvania experiencing a similar event in the center of another state. Our family home was in Lock Haven, Pa on the Susquehanna River. I remember my grandmother telling of prior floods on the river. I was a grad student at Penn State working on my Ph.D after returning from Virginia and prior to that Vietnam. After the flood, we gathered all the grad students and with mops and hoses, washed out all the mud and debris where the flood had risen about 4 feet into our home on 47 West Water Street. With all the help, we were able to put the rugs on the porch to dry, hose down all the mud, and place the furniture outside in the sun to dry out. It took about a week of hard work. Luckily our home in Pleasant Gap, had not been flooded. I look back upon the event and realize that we were able to sell the house partially because it was less flooded than the other houses on the market!

@bluebandog 2 жыл бұрын

Hey Scot - Thanks for posting this video. I was surprised to see the shot of Sterling Products - my father, Tom Harrison, worked there for over 40 years. While reading your description, I realized that your father must be the Jack Miller who worked with my dad. We lived in Trucksville, so we weren't touched by the floodwaters. My grandmother lived in a first floor apartment on Market Street, so she lost pretty much everything and came to live with us for awhile. My mom worked at her apartment, trying to salvage anything she could. I didn't get down to Kingston or Wilkes-Barre until substantial clean up had been done, but I heard story after story of friends dealing with the aftermath. They sure had their hands full at Sterling Products, taking machinery apart to clean out the flood mud. What a mess. I remember crossing over the Market Street Bridge the day before the river crested. We were going to Wilkes Barre to do some shopping after an orthodontist appointment in Kingston. My mom looked at the river and said, "Gee, the river looks high." She had lived through the flood of '36 and was washed out of her house on Third Avenue. She may have had an idea of what was in store, but I sure didn't.

@tbr2109 2 жыл бұрын

My parents were in their teens when this happened and I grew up hearing about it constantly. Thanks for posting the footage so I can finally put some images to the stories.

@gimmethepinkelephant3685 11 ай бұрын

My father was working for Bell Of Pennsylvania at the time of this storm. He was 47 years old. He was up there in Wilkes-Barre working on the phone lines in some office building up there and he said that the flood waters had gotten so bad down below that there were caskets that had came up out a graveyard down the street that started floating by the building. He said it was one of the worst floods he'd ever seen or been in.

@OneAdam12Adam Жыл бұрын

My dad received an award from Motors Insurance Corporation, a General Motors company. That was back when American companies valued their employees to some degree. My father had to work non stop out of town for months as soon as the impending damage was anticipated and well after it left. He had to physically go to ever single one of the claims and approve the claims by viewing the damage to individuals and dealerships. We had just moved to the Pittsburgh, PA area when it happened but he had to work in West Virginia, Western Maryland and Central PA for all of those months. He came back noticeable affected.