h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The topography of central and western Pennsylvania makes me think of corduroy pants. Heck, Pennsylvania has some really strange stuff -- underground coal fires that can abruptly cause whole towns to collapse into the abyss. Harrisburg is egregiously bankrupt, yet somehow manages to keep going. My Great Uncle lived in Forty Fort, near the Susquehanna River, until 1972, when a hurricane turned it into an inland sea. I saw the flood marks on his living room wall -- horrific, not unlike the flood marks on the wall of a church in Florence. The flood water crept into underground caverns and bubbled up through graveyards, so that when the waters subsided, caskets were sitting in the branches of trees. I mentioned this to the editor of a local newspaper in my area, and she said that her brother was buried near the river, and his grave washed away. You just never know!

Yeah, I remember those floods. I think that year was the one where downtown Pittsburgh got flooded... ooh, NOAA has pictures...

http://www.floodsafety.noaa.gov/states/pa-flood.shtml

Pennsylvania's geology is unusual - anthracite in the east, bituminous in the west. Fascinating history the whole place has. Did you ever read my guide entry on Pittsburgh that starts in Pangea? I took the photo in front of the Carnegie Museum - they like putting CMU scarves on the dinosaur. A87860866

I've actually been to Pittsburgh. I was singing in a college choral group, and we gave a concert in a high school in that city. (We also sang concerts in Columbus, Akron, and Cincinnati.) This was about 50 years ago. perhaps the city has changed a bit in the interim.

http://newsinteractive.post-gazette.com/thedigs/2015/07/15/when-hurricane-agnes-slammed-soggy-pittsburgh/

My uncle lived near Wilkes-Barre, which in 1972 had piles of sooty-looking coal-mine detritus here and there.

Do you remember what high school it was?