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Johnstown is synonymous with floodwaters and steel. When the city was decimated by a flood of biblical proportions in 1889, it was considered one of the worst natural disasters in American history and gained global attention. Sadly, that deluge was only the first of three major floods to claim lives and wreak havoc in the region. The destruction in the wake of the St. Patrick's Day flood in 1936 was the impetus for groundbreaking federal and local flood control measures. Multiple dam failures, including the Laurel Run Dam in July 1977, left a flooded Johnstown with a failing steel industry in ruins. Author Pat Farabaugh charts the harrowing history of Johnstown's great floods and the effects on its economic lifeblood.

Although history records the hurricane that struck northeastern Pennsylvania in June 1972 as "Agnes," residents of the Wyoming Valley affected by the storm and the resulting damage simply refer to it as "the flood." As the Susquehanna River rose to over 40 feet and left her banks, citizens could do nothing but watch as their lives were forever changed. A raging torrent unearthed dozens of previously resting bodies in the Forty Fort Cemetery, houses were knocked off their foundations or swept away entirely, and citizens took to their boats to rescue those who did not heed the warnings of the sirens that wailed when the waters began to surge through the city streets. And yet, amidst the drama, a wedding--scheduled long before the storm--proceeded, though not quite as envisioned by the bride and groom.