On June 22nd of 1972 Hurricane Agnes hit the East Coast of Pennsylvania with a vengeance. The severe storm with its heavy rainfall caused the Schuylkill River in the areas surrounding Reading, Pennsylvania to rise suddenly by 18 feet above flood level. A middle school student at the time, I had been dropped off at summer band camp earlier that morning. By the time practice was over and we stepped outside, the water was rising fast. The band director volunteered to deliver three of us home, so that our mothers did not have to go out in the storm. We wouldn’t arrive home until the next morning.

As the band director tried maneuver his 1970 VW Beetle through a street not far from the school, the rain pounded the car and the water rose suddenly and exponentially. Soon, the water was rising insid…