The Buffalo Creek Disaster Essay

flooding. The dyke was one of the biggest in America at a mile and three quarters long. Colt’s

Many people think of the Civil War and America’s Indian wars as distinct subjects, one following the other. But those who study the Sand Creek Massacre know different. On Nov. 29, 1864, as Union armies fought through Virginia and Georgia, Col. John Chivington led some 700 cavalry troops in an unprovoked attack on peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho villagers at Sand Creek in Colorado. They murdered nearly 200 women, children and older men. Sand Creek was one of many assaults on American Indians during the war, from Patrick Edward Connor’s massacre of Shoshone villagers along the Idaho-Utah border at Bear River on Jan. 29, 1863, to the forced removal and incarceration of thousands of Navajo people in 1864 known as the Long Walk. In terms of sheer

However, the dams were of faulty construction. Dam number one which caused the flooding was constructed of coarse mining refuse that Pittston had dumped into the Middle Fork of Buffalo Creek starting in 1968. This dam failed first on the heels of heavy rains. The water from Dam number three then took out dams number two and then number one. Dam number three had simply

At 7:45 AM, as the men were doing repair work, water started to flow down the valley. Multiple lives could potentially have been saved if residents of the Buffalo Hallow were informed of the potential disaster and magnitude of its occurrence. The Pittston Coal Company ignored warnings from all major government departments like the mining bureau, the National Guard, the State Police, and even the local sheriff’s office. At 7:59 AM, the dam officially collapsed and lead to major blasts as boiling yellow suffer coal deposits came in contact with rushing water from the stream. At 8:01 AM, a huge outburst of 130 million gallons of water stream swept away the whole Buffalo Creek and drifted along all the coal manufacturing waste with it. This tragedy claimed 123 lives, injured 1000 and also left 4000 people homeless. Alongside these statistics, the disaster left countless scars on the survivors and the citizens of West Virginia. In an attempt to absolve The Pittson Coal Company from any legal responsibility, company officials insisted the flood was “an act of God”. They argued that there absolutely nothing with the dam expect that it

On November 29, 1864 approximately 700 U.S. troops attacked a village of 500 Arapaho and Cheyenne Indians. The village consisted of men, women, and children, who thought they were at peace with the U.S. government. The attack at Sand Creek was part of a chain of bad events and battles the Plains Indian tribes were experiencing with migrating settlers arriving from the east and U.S. soldiers. An 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie condensed Cheyenne and Arapaho land but promised them yearly payments in exchange for safe passage of settlers through their tribal lands. The discovery of gold in Colorado in 1858 brought a greater inflow of settlers coming in a hunt

(Erikson p. 25) The Buffalo Coal Company decided to stack this waste at the top of the mountains which after a while created a dam. This "sludge water" was dumped in nearby lakes which they stopped because this water would end up in the streams that lead to the town. They then disposed of the water behind the dam which held up to over 130 million gallons of waste. There was a non-stop rain plaguing this area throughout the whole month of February. This rain continued to fill this dam, and on February 26, 1972 that dam collapsed causing this valley to fill with slag water. Residents explained hearing explosions and it feeling like an earthquake as the flood began. In only a few hours most of Buffalo Creek had been washed away into the Guyandotte River. After most of the water left the scene could be described as something out of a war movie; wreckage, bodies lying everywhere. The Buffalo Creek government creates aid for survivors of this disaster by offering trailer homes and other relief processes. The book has a lot of witness accounts what it was like actually going through this. I found out that The Environmental Protection Agency was enacted in 1970 and by this time the Buffalo Mining Company had already been dumping their sludge and waste water

The large amount of rain caused the South Fork Dam to collapse on May 31, 1889 at 3:10 p.m.. The lake drained in only forty minutes causing twenty million tons of water to flood the area. The water moved at forty miles per hour going over everything in its path. Thirty-three train engines were even pulled into the water. The town of South Fork was uphill so most were able to get away. Although, at this point twenty to thirty houses were destroyed and four people were dead. Johnstown was still fourteen miles away and yet to be hit. Finally, fifty-seven minutes after the dam collapsed, Johnstown was hit by the flood. The people of Johnstown were not expecting this, so most were carried away by the flood. The Johnstown Flood of 1889 claimed 2,209 lives. It is believed that this has one of the biggest losses of life in the United States. In total ninety-nine families were killed by the natural disaster and seven hundred seventy-seven people were never identified. Sixteen hundred homes were gone and there was seventeen million dollars in property damage. It took a total of five years to rebuild Johnstown. Therefore, The Johnstown Flood of 1889 was one of the worst natural

After it was over, the flood had destroyed 507 homes, damaged 936 homes, left over 4,000 people homeless, swept away 30 trailers and 600 automobiles, destroyed 30 businesses, washed out sections of the railroad and 10 bridges, and knocked out telephone, sewage, water and power services (Nugent 146). Over 1,000 residents sustained injuries and 125 people were killed, 7 bodies were never found (Nugent 146). “Victims lay crushed against bridges, wedged between railroad cars, swinging grotesquely from tree branches” (Nugent 151). In the days following the disaster, as the extent of the devastation unfolded, Pittston “remained silent, without even a word of condolence for the victims” (Nugent 156). When an official finally made a statement, he

The Myall Creek Massacre occurred in the early evening of Sunday the 10th June 1838. A group of eleven men, convicts and ex-convict stockmen, viscously slaughtered a group of around twenty eight Wirrayaraay Aboriginal people. They attacked men, women and children who were all either camped peacefully next to the station huts or, inside the station with the other settlers, enjoying dancing and a meal together (at the Myall Creek cattle station in northern New South Wales).

As people began to realize the damage done by the pollution of the environment nearly fifty years had passed. By this time the contaminated tailings and toxins released from the smelters and chemical treatment facilities had reached an outrageous numbers. With the help of the great flood of 1908 these pollutants covered the Silver Bow creek banks from Butte all the way to the Milltown Dam. In 1911 the Anaconda Company began extensive cleanup efforts by implementing the use of warm springs ponds as a water treatment facility (Citizens Technical Environmental Committee, 4). These ponds were developed initially with the thought that they would be able to catch polluted tailings before they were able to reach the Clark Fork River. There was an estimated 2,400 acres of warm springs ponds built between the years of 1911 and 1959 (Citizens Technical Environmental Committee, 4). The settling ponds were created to hold the mining wastes, acting as a dam so that the metals did not end up in the Clark Fork River. The tailings are then covered over with lime to prevent them from leeching back into the environment. This series of warm springs ponds provides treatment to the water in such a way that the environment can cleanse the water of pollutants on its own instead. This treatment method is accomplished with the water being further cleansed as it is transferred from pond to pond. The

Countries across the globe have rich histories full of tradition a glories events. However, these countries always have a darker side to their history, one historians and the public may often cast aside. Being a powerful and extensive nation, the United States conforms to this theory. Many times, things like wars will be glorified in the country even though they brought about tremendous loss of life. Yet there are events worse than wars that many Americans would rather not dwell upon. Two such incidents are the Memphis riots and Sand Creek massacre. These two events illustrate a more sinister past to the United States. As they were both massacres, they have many similarities in what happened yet they remain distinctly unique. Overall, both catastrophes offer a glimpse at the stark reality of how Native Americans and African Americans have been mistreated in the United States and how differently the minorities had come to be treated by the government.

Lots of small things can make a large impact on society, on people, on the world, whether it’s for better or whether it’s for worse. For example, a single person can speak for an entire nation and make it a force to be reckoned with. Or, on the other hand, a single small leak in the side of a fuel tank can make it so half a million people don’t have a pure source of water. There’s no two ways about it, it’s common sense to avoid a situation in which a blunder, no matter how large, could dramatically affect a whole community. However, Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) has placed the Inland Empire in a very delicate situation where one

The Maumee River Basin is an important aspect of our communities. Water is important to our everyday life. Pope Francis calls us to examine our lives and becomes aware of the many issues being faced on our earth. It is important to establish a relationship with creation. The first step in doing so is becoming informed and acting. This semester we focused one of the several issues affecting us globally as we’re as locally. The issue that I decided to learn about was the local issue on flooding. In Fort Wayne and surrounding in the 1845’s the great flood. The great flood killed a family of 6. Floods are local issues that are not focus on. In the

We all know there is something in the water. In June 1969, there was an oil slick on the Cuyahoga River which was a turning point in American attitudes about water pollution. It wasn't the first time a U.S. river had caught fire; the Cuyahoga had already burned nine times since the Civil War but it came at a time when environmental issues were already in the

Question 2: Choose an event from the past that caused a significant amount of water pollution (tsunami, oil spill, etc.). Write a thorough description of the event/disaster and the aftermath to water resources. What can/did us as humans learn from this? What can you as an individual do to help limit water pollution? Cite your sources...including the textbook