Tropical Storm Agnes savaged York County with more than 15 inches of rain
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Elmer Ferlow recalls watching a man drown during the fury of Tropical Storm Agnes. Memories of the storm and its deadly aftermath are recorded as part of the York Daily Record/Sunday News “Remember” oral history series, where this video first appeared. (See flood photos below.) Background posts: ‘Picture Memories’ booklet: York County Flood of 1933 worst of record up to that point and Reader searching for Tropical Storm Agnes photos to use in children’s tour and In late June, things happen in York County and What is the probability of another flood in York?.
The list of events from York County’s past explored in an oral history series printed in the York Daily Record/Sunday News and then posted in a Web archive continues to grow.
Actually, they’re not real oral histories, as academics define them, with a rigorous Q & A format.
But you’ll find a rich repository of audio, video and written memories at the Remember site.
So far in 2009, local residents have given their memories of the 2008 election, Golden Venture, Invasion of Iraq, cigar factories and high school dances.
Today, the series covered Tropical Storm Agnes, the 1972 storm that dropped more than 15 inches of rain on York County.
We’ll tell the story here in a series of submitted photos that were published in the newspaper (6/22/09):
Indian Rock Dam’s impoundment formed a lake but did not deter extensive flooding downstream.
The storm damage cost just the City of York $10 million and displaced more than 100 city families.
The storm dropped 15 inches of rain over a wide region covering Pennsylvania from the Mason-Dixon Line to the New York State line.
Other topics in the “Remember” series:
– “Old” technology
– The Vietnam War
– The Great Depression
– The York Fair
– Phone booths and pay phones
– 1969 race riots
– Drive-in theaters
– World War II
– Baseball in York
– Panic at TMI
– First dates
– Blizzards of 1993 and 1996
