Why Did Johnstown Happen

May 31, 1889 was a day that brought terror to the small town of Johnstown Pennsylvania. The small town was established in 1794 as a steel town and had a population on 30,000. The cause of the flood actually starts not at the town but 14 upstream at the South Fork Dam were the Little Conemaugh and Stony Creeks rivers meet as you can see in the image below. At this place is Lake Conemaugh, a 3-mile long lake located up against the side of a mountain, 450 feet higher than Johnstown PA. The construction started in 1840 under the supervision of engineer William E. Morris but wasn't completed till 1852 due to financial difficulties. (Johnstown Historical Society)

There were only two survivors in the direct path of the surge.The first was 25 year old Louis-Auguste he ran off from his laboring job and didn't work all day.He drank that entire night then turned himself

(Ref. 5) On May 29, 2015 which was Memorial Day the rain decided to pour. This left around 12 inches of rain in just hours. This flood caused a lot of damage to homes and buildings. Unfortunately, there was cases of people that did lose their lives. Air rescues had to be performed along with emergency evacuation due to severe flood for some people. It was almost at much severity as the tropical storm Allison that happen in

lives were ended as a result of this unnatural disaster, most of them civilian. The people

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

|collapsed in the Buffalo Creek Valley. Over 130 million gallons of water and waste material devastated Buffalo Creek's sixteen |

The Johnstown Flood was a catastrophe that occurred in Western Pennsylvania on May 13st of 1889. The flood occurred when a dam on the Little Conemaugh River, South Fork Dam, failed to support heavy rainfall flow that caused the river to swell and the dam to be overloaded. Unfortunately, a short fourteen miles down the river lived the people of Johnstown. Johnstown was a prosperous yet modest western Pennsylvania town. The town had an iron company called Cambria Iron Company, which employed most of its men in producing steel products. The town, at the time, had a few phones, three local newspapers, and a handful of saloons. At the time, they were self-sufficient.

The Buffalo Creek flood of West Virginia is believed to be the most devastating coal relate disaster in West Virginia history. The flood occurred in the Buffalo Creek area of Logan County on February 26, 1972 when three dams broke and released 132 million gallons of water and coal waste known by miners as “gob,” and is a thick sludge-like material. The gob contains many toxic chemicals and pollutants such as mercury and arsenic that are left behind from the coal mining process. The wastewater would lie in settling ponds and dams until it could be properly disposed of. The water that was left over from processing coal would be disposed of in two different ways. Some of the water would be pumped from the dam back to the “tipple”, otherwise

The American and French Artillery where the prime component that led to the triumph over the British during the Battle of Yorktown in 1781. Both the Americans and the French utilized their seasoned gunners to fire over fifteen thousand rounds during the nine day siege. The precision and lethalness of the Allied artillery was one of the key factors that led Lord Cornwallis surrender at Yorktown.

The American Red Cross team had 50 volunteers to help lead by Clara Barton. It was a major diester it overflowed all the dams and got into people’s house and destoryed their values. May 31st it was already flooding

After many years of fighting and battles, the final battle, the Battle of Yorktown was the climax of the Revolutionary War. In 1781, the leader of the British troops, General Cornwallis, marched his troops to Yorktown, Virginia where the battle took place between York and James River. That mistake caused him his defeat of war. From the north the leader of the American troops, George Washington, once saw an opportunity to attack the British troops. Washington made a quick move and took the French and American allies with him and headed south. General Cornwallis had no escape. Their only hope was to flee for the ocean but the French allies surrounded them. After days of fighting, his army s food and ammunition ran out so he surrendered his army

However, the breaking down of the levees was the beginning of the communication problem because the city’s residents and the National Guard were unaware they were down until it was too late. With the flood soon engulfing the city of New Orleans it’s vital resources fell in a time of need as communications, transportation, supplies and manpower were rapidly besieged by the unforgiving waters (Walters and Kettl 2005). This lack of communication resulted in the emergency response team’s desperate attempt to save each other before they could even help the

On the day of the Toowoomba tsunami, January 10, 2011. Ferocious torrents of water swept through the city of Toowoomba. Dan Murphy was stuck on his roof with nothing except for his wet, cold clothes. It was confirmed that at least seven lives have been lost in the severe floods

The warnings for Hurricane Jack did not start to get serious until September 5. At that time, the local news was suggesting gathering supplies and hunker down. Every grocery store and gas station was crowded beyond belief. I ran into my neighbor in the bare water aisle.