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Remembering Hurricane Agnes’ impact on Pittsburgh, 50 years later

The photo staff at the Pittsburgh Press were deployed all over the city to document the massive flooding caused by Hurricane Agnes in June of 1972.   Here are some of their contact sheets, showing each photographer’s outtakes, notes, and thought processes in creating these historic photos.

A contact sheet showing a barge stuck near the Ninth Street Bridge and Three Rivers Stadium as seen from the South Side. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Archive)
Flood cleanup June 24, 1972. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Archive)
Floods on June 23, 1972. (Ross A. Catanza/The Pittsburgh Press)
Floods on June 23, 1972. (Ross A. Catanza/The Pittsburgh Press)
Flood on June 24, 1972. (Albert M. Herrmann Jr./The Pittsburgh Press)
Flood on June 24, 1972. (Albert M. Herrmann Jr./The Pittsburgh Press)
Flood on June 24, 1972. (Albert M. Herrmann Jr./The Pittsburgh Press)
Flood June 23, 1972. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Archive)

Flood June 23, 1972: Photos include putting sandbags at the Press, 6th and 9th Street bridges steps flooded. Manning the pumps on Stanwix Street. Ft. Duquesne ramp underwater with the stadium in the background and barges wrecked. (Robert J. Pavuchak/Pittsburgh Press)

Flood June 1972. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Archives)