The Johnstown Flood: A Natural Disaster

The Johnstown Flood was caused by a man made lake, it was constructed in 1881. The dam was 900 feet by 72 feet. The dam was one of the largest earth dams, which means it was made by things like rocks and dirt instead of cement or steel which bridges are mostly made of. Johnstown was built on the Appalachian Plateau. It was the center of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. The lake had been used for fishing and sailing. Before the dam broke, there had been many warnings that it was possible that it could break,but they had been ignored. “Messages were sent to Johnstown warning that the dam might give, but after years of false alarms, the messages were ignored. The water began to top the dam, and eventually it gave way” (“The Johnstown Flood”).

South Fork Dam is known as a catastrophic failure. All it took to break the dam was several days of very heavy rain towards the end of May to push the dam to its literal breaking point. The dam breaking became one of the most reported events all around the world in 1889. It took an hour for the water to run through the Allegheny Mountains. The water then continued to flow down the Conemaugh Valley. The waves were coming at the town at thirty to forty miles an hour (“Wave of Destruction”). The pile of floating debris came to a stop when it reached a stone bridge. The bridge had stopped it all from moving, causing it to act as another dam. With this happening, it only caused more problems. It could not let the water out so all the water and debris ended up backing up all over the city. This is when all the trash and everything else it picked up along the way had caught fire. The Johnstown Flood was one of the most destructive and devastating floods in Johnstown; buildings were demolished, thousands were killed, and it resulted in years of reconstruction (The Johnstown Flood- May

Over three million dollars worth of donations came in from the United States and an additional eighteen foreign countries (“Wave of Destruction”). People all around the world were helping to get clothing, food and any other supplies that was needed. The American Red Cross went and set up shelters for anyone whose house was destroyed in the flood. Helping Johnstown was the Red Cross’s first major disaster they worked with. It had attracted dozens of reporters, along with aid groups to help.The people of Johnstown did not waste any time at all to get started and make changes to help prevent another flood and to reconstruct the town. Johnstown had started up its own limited flood control. They began with making prohibiting dumping. They also changed the widths of channels so they did not get blocked like before (The Johnstown Flood). Flood walls were constructed in key locations to help the flow of water. Since many of the people 's homes were now just piles of trash, the survivors started to make huts out of the debris around them. It took several months to clean up all the debris. There were many supporters of the relief that includes some of the South Fork Hunting and Fishing club members such as Andrew Carnegie, Henry Frick, and Andrew Mellon. They created the incline which is still in Johnstown, to carry supplies. It is the steepest