In 1972, Hurricane Agnes, at its peak “merely” a Category 1 storm, traversed the east coast of North America for five days, forming in the Gulf of Mexico and finally dissipating in Canada. While many states received disaster declarations from President Nixon, Pennsylvania bore the brunt of the deluge produced by the storm, and it remains today the worst disaster in commonwealth history. The storm briefly stalled over Pennsylvania, flooding rivers and streams, taking 48 lives, and severely damaging infrastructure. The numbers from Hurricane Agnes were staggering: more than 64,000 homes damaged or destroyed, 14 trillion gallons of water deposited in north central Pennsylvania, reports of 15 inches of rainfall in the Harrisburg area over a 24-hour period, and over $2 billion worth of damage. At the time of the hurricane, one of Pennsylvania’s representatives in the U.S. Senate was Richard Schweiker, whose four-page report from August 1972 provides insight into the challenges of a federal response and the many legislative activities that grew out of the disaster.
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