Lake Barcroft History Book

The morning of Wednesday, June 21, 1972, dawned
with overcast skies and a precipitation forecast of 80
percent. Nothing unusual. A minor hurricane,
designated Agnes, had battered and flooded portions of the
Southeast but had lost intensity and was downgraded to a
tropical depression. As it barreled up the East Coast, the storm
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gathered both strength and moisture from the Atlantic waters
and regained tropical storm intensity when it reached the
Virginia coast. That evening, it became clear that far more than
a storm had hit; by ten o’clock, well-drained roads were six
inches deep in water. At about eleven o’clock, the radio
reported a breach in the Lake Barcroft dam. It took ten hours
Hurricane Agnes over-topped the Barcroft Dam eroding away an earthen section which exposed Jack Perkins’ basement. (June 22, 1972)