Debris Piled by Side of Road After Flood, Wilkes-Barre, PA, USA
Leonard Freed
Description
Subject Matter:
This photograph depicts a view down onto a residential street lined with piles of wreckage in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Local residents converse across a debris-filled front yard in the lower foreground; they are rendered minuscule by the photographer's second-story vantage point. Though it made landfall as a tropical storm, former Hurricane Agnes became one of the most devastating natural disasters in modern U.S. history due to the floods and tornadoes it caused across much of the eastern seaboard. Wilkes-Barre was particularly affected and had to be evacuated when the Susquehanna River crested its banks, resulting in 128 deaths and billions of dollars in damage. Freed, known for images of the Civil Rights Movement, here photographs residents who have returned to the city after the storm has subsided. Freed focuses on not only the flood's devastation but also its effects on the community and on individuals.
Physical Description:
A man standing in the middle of a street that had been flooded. There are piles of debris in front of the houses.
Usage Rights:
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