Tropical Storm Agnes, which brought historic flooding to Pennsylvania in 1972, continues to give up its dead.
Workers on a stream restoration project in Forty Fort in northeastern Pennsylvania, along the Susquehanna River, recently found 35 headstones buried in silt that had disappeared from a nearby historic cemetery during the floods.
The flooding tore into the Forty Fort Cemetery near the riverbanks with graves dating back to 1777, including those of Native Americans. The gouging waters destroyed or washed away more than 2,700 burial vaults and caskets, as well as human remains.
About 1,400 were recovered after the floods. Remains were found on back porches, roofs and in basements as late as 1977. Many bodies were never recovered.
The recovered tombstones and remains were relocated to another cemetery about 6 miles away. Because the flood did so much geological damage to about half the cemetery, it was turned into a public park.
The stream workers recently found the latest batch of lost tombstones about 300 feet from the border of the cemetery. The Forty Fort Cemetery Association plans to temporarily store the headstones at the cemetery and get in touch with descendants to ask what they want to do with them. Later, the association would like to establish a memorial area on the burial grounds next to the site of the stream restoration work.
Tropical Storm Agnes devasted much of the Chesapeake Bay region 52 years ago. 122 people died, 48 of the deaths were in Pennsylvania. The storm caused $3.1 billion in damage, making it the nation’s costliest natural disaster of its time.
