Inundated and Overwhelmed

Fifty years ago, “America’s Estuary” was beginning to show signs of ecological collapse. But outside of a handful of environmentalists and academics, few people took much note. When a seemingly harmless tropical storm charged up from the Gulf of Mexico, few people took much note of that either. But within a few wild and tragic days in June of 1972, Tropical Storm Agnes changed the way people thought about the Chesapeake Bay and the power of storms in the Mid-Atlantic. This is the story of how Agnes ushered in a dark new era for the Bay -- an era we're still living in.