On 16 December 2024, the Johnstown Flood killed more than 2,200 people in southwestern Pennsylvania when the long-neglected South Fork Dam suddenly gave way.
Like many other town in the Rust Belt , Johnstown , Pennsylvania , was a bustling community in the late 1800s and early 1900s when the steel diligence was at its tallness . Tragically , the Johnstown Flood of 1889 pass over out nearly ten percent of the sphere ’s booming population .
locate 60 international mile east of Pittsburgh , Johnstown was built on a knit between the Little Conemaugh and Stony Creek Rivers , which made the city prone to frequent flooding . In the mid-1800s , a dam was build up on the Little Conemaugh , 14 miles upstream from Johnstown , to help control these disasters .
Unfortunately , when the dekameter failed 50 years subsequently , Johnstown experienced one of the most crushing deluge in American chronicle .
The B&O Passenger Station in Johnstown after the flood tore a gaping hole in the exterior of the building.
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The Catastrophic Failure Of The South Fork Dam
In 1889 , 30,000 mass — many of them steelmaker — called Johnstown , Pennsylvania home . The town ’s resident were used to frequent flooding when it rained hard or when snow in the smother deal mellow out too quickly , but they were not prepared for what happened on May 31 , 1889 , when the South Fork Dam collapsed .
accord toHISTORY , when the dekametre was built in the 1840s , it was the prominent earth dam in the United States . The structure of dirt and rock that held in the water of serviceman - made Lake Conemaugh stood 72 foot tall and 900 foundation long .
The dam was an essential part of a canal system that was used to transport goods along the river of Pennsylvania before the Industrial Revolution . However , the introduction of railroads across America eventually interchange epithelial duct as the chief agency of channel good , and the dam fall into disrepair as its maintenance was neglected .
In 1879 , the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club purchased Lake Conemaugh and the dam to use as an exclusive spot for wealthy appendage to go glide , enamour the fish that were stocked in the lake , and unwind . Its members include some of the deep men in America , like Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick .
Bettmann / Getty ImagesThe bleak area that was once Lake Conemaugh after the inundation .
Despite have access to deal of money , the club failed to properly maintain the dam . In fact , official even lower the height of the structure to make a wider road across the top of it and added screens to the spillway to end the fish from swim out , according to theNational Park Service .
Both of these " improvements " greatly contributed to the dam ’s unsuccessful person and the subsequent Johnstown Flood .
On May 31 , 1889 , an engineer at the decameter note that the spillway screens had become clogged with detritus after days of heavy pelting . Sensing an oncoming disaster , he rode a buck into the nearby town of South Fork to discourage its residents .
Unfortunately , the telegraph parentage were down . Nobody could get in contact with Johnstown .
The dam collapsed just after 3 p.m. , with a gaudy boom that could be heard from Swedish mile off , and the entirety of Lake Conemaugh rush forth at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour .
The resident of Johnstown , just 14 sea mile downstream , had no estimation what was coming .
The Total Devastation Caused By The Johnstown Flood
The tumbling water collected trees , buildings , and any other objects in its path as it swept through the villages east of Johnstown . By the clip the undulation of floodwater and debris reached the sick - fat town around 4 p.m. , it was reportedly nearly 40 foot high-pitched .
ANew York Timesarticle from June 1 , 1889 , report that Johnstown had been " practically wiped out of beingness " after the flood " sweep forrader … like a tidal undulation … house , factories and nosepiece were overwhelmed in the twinkling of an eye and with their human occupants were carried in a immense chaos down the cod violent stream . "
As the 20 million stacks of water tore through Johnstown , the inundation destroy everything in its path . Reliance on wire at the metre made contiguous reportage hard , but one telegraphy operator recite reporter that he count 63 body float past his office in just 20 minutes .
It did n’t take long , however , for the rightful devastation to be disclose .
Library of Congress / Getty ImagesA group of survivor command Johnstown after the flood .
Data from theJohnstown Area Heritage Associationshows that a total of 2,209 people were kill by the flood , though 750 of them were never identified .
The flood claim 99 intact families as victims , including 396 nipper . The water carried some bodies as far as Cincinnati — 300 miles away . The last victim was n’t found until 1911 .
The water wipe out four square miles of business district Johnstown , destroy 1,600 homes , and make $ 17 million worth of property hurt , with flood tide lines reaching up to 89 feet above the normal river level in places .
Some occupier clung to trees , piece of furniture , and roof that had been torn from homes in gild to stay afloat as the rushing piddle carry them away . Eventually , all of the rubble piled up downstream at the Pennsylvania Railroad Company ’s Stone Bridge . The heaps of debris stretch for 30 acres — and then it all caught on fire , killing many who had survived the initial bombardment of water supply .
By the end of the sidereal day , nearly ten percent of Johnstown ’s citizen were stagnant , and the small community of interests was go out to pick up the bit .
Rebuilding Johnstown After The Great Disaster
Five days after the flood and fire , Clara Barton and the American Red Cross arrived to start out one of their first major peacetime disaster relief efforts .
The group wield to raise nearly $ 4 million to help in the reconstruction of Johnstown . It took five years to rebuild the community , but unfortunately , nature raise to be an unstoppable force .
Library of Congress / Getty ImagesAn overview of the damage caused to Johnstown by the flood in 1889 .
Johnstown confront significant , disastrous flooding again in 1936 and later in 1977 , though neither event was comparable to the absolute destruction of the flood of 1889 .
In fact , until the Galveston Hurricane a decade later , the Great Johnstown Flood marked the large single - twenty-four hours loss of civilian living in American history — yet few citizenry are even aware that it happened at all .
If you confab Johnstown ’s City Hall today , you may see for yourself the markers that bespeak the high - water horizontal surface for each flood and learn more about this little - known cataclysm .
The 1889 Johnstown Flood was one of the most devastating in American history . get a line how Britain faced similar devastation in 1953 whenthe North Sea floodedand killed century of people . Or , explore themost scourge natural disasters of the 21st century .
Bettmann/Getty ImagesThe barren area that was once Lake Conemaugh after the flood.
Library of Congress/Getty ImagesA group of survivors overlooks Johnstown after the flood.
Library of Congress/Getty ImagesAn overview of the damage caused to Johnstown by the flood in 1889.
