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Agnes 50: Life After the Flood

Wednesday, September 7, 2022 @ 7PM (EDT)
Screened online and in HUB-Robeson Center Freeman Auditorium
Check Out Our Digital Handbill!
Alexander Monelli (2022, U.S., 57 min.) + post-film discussion

It can be forgiven, right? It was 50 years ago–satellite weather prediction was still in its infancy, nothing like the sophisticated systems we have in place today. Surely something like Hurricane Agnes, which at the time was the costliest hurricane to ever hit the United States and dumped more than 14 trillion gallons of water on Pennyslvania, would not repeat its damage were it to arrive today? We’re safer today aren’t we?

Alexander Monelli’s Agnes 50: Life After the Flood suggests that this may be a false sense of security. For starters, we know that climate change will bring more frequent and severe flooding events to Pennsylvania. But even beyond that, this retrospective on Agnes shows that so often the results of disasters depend on decision-making by people, both before and during an event. More than 175 attendees joined us for this retrospective film and post-film discussion as we considered how we can better prepare from a social, policy, and infrastructure perspective for future flooding events in Pennsylvania.

Following the film, a post-film discussion panel (streamable at that link) expanded on these topics, featuring:

  • William Bradfield, Flood Insurance Outreach Specialist, Mitigation, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
  • Lara Fowler, Interim Chief Sustainability Officer of Penn State and Interim Director, Sustainability Institute
  • Alexander (Al) MonelliDirector, Agnes 50: Life After the Flood
  • Teri Provost, Chief of the Community Services Division, SEDA-Council of Governments

(Screening in partnership with the Penn State Water Council)

This documentary is really about the people of the Susquehanna watershed and how we’re all connected. When I started this film, I never knew there were so many issues related to flooding, and they’ve been ongoing since 1972. What one town does to mitigate flooding may impact another town downstream. It raises questions about our responsibility to our own community, our neighbors downstream, and nature as a whole.

Alexander Monelli

Director