Hurricane Agnes (1972)

Agnes formed near Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula in mid-June 1972 and moved north across the Gulf of Mexico.¹ NHC's best track brings it ashore on the Florida Panhandle at 2100 UTC on June 19 as a Category 1 hurricane with 65-knot (75 mph) winds and a 983 mb pressure.^2,1 After crossing Georgia and the Carolinas, it made a final landfall near New York City on June 22, just below hurricane strength.¹

In Florida, tides of 3 to 5 feet above normal did some damage from Fort Myers to Tampa Bay, and damage was heavier around Apalachicola and Cedar Key, where tides reached 6.4 and 7.0 feet above normal.³ Near the landfall, the highest wind a land station reported was a 48-knot (55 mph) gust at Apalachicola.³ Fifteen tornadoes touched down in Florida on June 18 and 19, and two more in Georgia on June 19.³ Nine people died in Florida, six of them in windstorms around Lake Okeechobee.^1,3

After merging with another low, Agnes brought 6 to 12 inches of rain to the northeastern United States, with local totals of 14 to 19 inches, and widespread severe flooding from Virginia to New York.¹ The Susquehanna River crested at 32.57 feet at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, above the 1936 record.⁴ In the Susquehanna basin, 72 people died, and Army Corps of Engineers estimates put damage in 1972 dollars at about $539 million in Wilkes-Barre, $260 million in Elmira, $172 million in Corning and $122 million in Harrisburg.⁴ Across the flooded region, more than 100,000 people lost their homes, and the floods destroyed roads, railroads and bridges.⁵ NHC counts 122 deaths and $2.1 billion in damage in the United States, mostly from the flooding.¹