Hurricane Agnes, Batters Athens Pennsylvania

Hundred-year Flood of Epic Proportions

Hurricane Agnes created much havoc in my hometown and even as a child, those memories are still within me. Every time I hear of another hurricane hitting the United States, I am reminded of those memories.

In 1972, it was just a few short months before my 6^th birthday, in the sleepy little town of Athens Pennsylvania when Hurricane Agnes struck. Highway 220 was just being built across the Chemung River in Athens and I remember standing on the area and seeing huge tress go down the river. The river, which used to be small, was now huge and extended into the town. I was so glad that we lived on the hill and were safe from this water.

I asked my dad with wide-eyed wonder what caused all this water to come to our town, and he replied it was Hurricane Agnes. At that point I had no clue just what that meant, but I knew it was bad just the same. The entire borough of Athens Pennsylvania was under water, and it got much worse as you went into downtown.

My family stood on the highway while my dad and other men walked Ralph's cows up from a barn to the railroad tracks and finally to the highway where they would put those cows in trucks to transport them to safety. The cows were taken to various farms in the country for safety reasons, and seeing those men put the cows on the trucks was unreal. Those cows were survivors of Hurricane Agnes because Ralph's friends and fellow farmers helped him as a small community does in a natural disaster.

From this point on the highway, one could see much more of the town, and much more of the floodwaters that were causing untold damage to the town. I see a house float down the river that really scared me. There were cars, trucks and huge uprooted trees just floating as if they were toys, I remember saying to my family that I wished this bad water would go away. Hurricane Agnes had caused major damage north of us, and some of that debris was floating past us as well.