Agnes, Remember Her ? Without revealing my exact age let’s just say I can remember the heavy rain from the remnants of Tropical Strom Agnes in 1972. We had new gutters installed on the 20th ! That was fortuitous as seven to thirteen inches of rain fell on the 21st and into the night of the 22nd. National received 7.19" while Dulles received 11", both twenty four hour rainfall records. Agnes made a second landfall not far from New York City. It then looped back into south central Pennsylvania. At the time it was the most costly natural disaster in the United States at over 2.1 billion dollars in damage. Five states were declared disaster area: Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Florida. All the dams around the Metro Area were in danger of breaking but all held. Roads on the other hand were washed out. If my dad hadn’t just brought a full tank of gas before work he said he would have never made it home. A forty five minute drive became a three and a half hour drive. The lesson from Agnes is crystal clear. Winds are not the main threat from tropical system but rather heavy rains. Our house only had one small drip of water in the basement thanks to those new gutters.

Click here to watch video from Agnes.  ¶ 6:54 PM