Her survivors transferred to another destroyer Oite, which was sunk a few hours later, with the loss of all of Agano's remaining survivors and most of Oite's.

If it seems strange or coincidental that she was torpedoed 1 day after leaving port, February 16-17 was the date of Operation Hailstone, the air raid on Truk. My guess is that Agano had no choice but to leave Truk on February 15 due to knowledge of this attack, despite whatever seaworthiness she may or may not have had.

benzene7 said:

Her survivors transferred to another destroyer Oite, which was sunk a few hours later, with the loss of all of Agano's remaining survivors and most of Oite's.

If it seems strange or coincidental that she was torpedoed 1 day after leaving port, February 16-17 was the date of Operation Hailstone, the air raid on Truk. My guess is that Agano had no choice but to leave Truk on February 15 due to knowledge of this attack, despite whatever seaworthiness she may or may not have had.

The Japanese knew at that point the base was no longer secure from a raid and had begun eventuating major fleet units from it in waves since the start of the year. They were certainly rushing to get her clear in a general sense, but it seems to be entirely coincidental that she was judged repaired enough to leave just before the attack. The Japanese had no specific intelligence that the raid was imminent, which was in fact what doomed the survivors. With Truk the closest "safe" base Oite doubled back with the survivors just in time to be caught up in the incoming raid and literally blown in half.

And all this started with Saratoga and Princeton bombing Rabaul.
Though Agano survived the initial attack with minor damage, she couldn't protect the base from becoming a practice target for American pilots and the rest is history.