Blair County residents can be excused for not becoming very concerned about the worst-ever Atlantic hurricane season predicted last month by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Seldom is this county affected seriously by those weather events, witnessed most often in southern states such as Florida, South Carolina and Louisiana.

However, Blair has not always escaped impacts from such storms, as looking back, especially to 1972, can attest. That was the year when Hurricane Agnes, “downgraded” to tropical storm status, wreaked havoc in Pennsylvania, causing $2.3 billion in losses.

According to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, Agnes, whose effects were widespread from the Caribbean to Canada, destroyed more than 3,000 businesses in the Keystone State alone, as well as 68,000 homes, while damaging numerous others.

The damage to Pennsylvania businesses exceeded $1 billion; damage to roadways totaled $500 million; and damage to crops and school districts was $120 million and $40 million, respectively.

Then there was what Wikipedia described as Agnes’ “devastating effect on the already-bankrupt railroads in the northeastern U.S., as lines were washed out and shipments delayed.”

The former Penn Central Railroad, important to the Blair County economy, sustained nearly $20 million in damages.

Many older Blair residents can recall clearly the damage that county population centers such as Altoona, Williamsburg and Tyrone experienced.

A ride eastbound on Route 22 east of Blair County revealed sights along the Juniata River that once seemed unimaginable. And Blair emerged from Agnes very lucky. Again, according to Wikipedia:

“Hundreds were trapped in their homes in Wilkes-Barre due to the overflowing Susquehanna River. At the historic cemetery in Forty Fort, 2,000 caskets were washed away, leaving body parts on porches, roofs and in basements. In Luzerne County alone, 25,000 homes and businesses were either damaged or destroyed. Losses in that county totaled to $1 billion.”

In Harrisburg, then-Gov. Milton Shapp and his wife Muriel had to be evacuated from the Governor’s Mansion by boat due to the flooding in the state’s capital city. Indeed, Agnes was a horrific watery experience unlike what Pennsylvania ever had to endure prior to 1972 — or which it has had to experience since.

Hopefully, 2024 will produce nothing to mimic 1972 but, nevertheless, even residents of Blair and other area counties should not pooh-pooh what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted for the current hurricane season, which runs from June 1 through Nov. 30.

According to a May 24 report in the Wall Street Journal, “this season will see between 17 and 25 named storms with winds of 39 miles an hour or higher (and) of those, 8 to 13 are forecast to become hurricanes with winds of 74 miles an hour or higher. Four to 7 major hurricanes of Category 3 or above with maximum sustained winds of 111 miles an hour or higher are expected to form.”

Each of those numbers is the highest NOAA has ever forecast since the federal agency began issuing seasonal hurricane outlooks in 1998. Ocean heat between 2 and 3½ degrees Fahrenheit above normal is the reason for NOAA’s prediction.

Ocean heat is the source of energy for hurricane formation. Local residents shouldn’t lose sleep over NOAA’s latest prediction, but 1972 provided an important lesson that always should be heeded.