After Agnes: The Agony of Wilkes-Barre

AMERICAN SCENE

THE statistics have been recorded and the books shut on the devastation caused by tropical storm Agnes two months ago: 118 dead, 116,000 dwellings damaged or destroyed, more than $3 billion worth of property damaged, 206 counties and 27 cities turned into official disaster areas. But the private suffering of its victims is more difficult to measure and—so far—without end. TIME Correspondent Marguerite Michaels recently visited Wilkes-Barre, Pa., in the area hardest hit by the storm. Her report:

The brown mud from the Susquehanna River has now dried to a white dust. It settles over everything and rims the eyes red....

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