Essay on Johnstown Flood Disaster - 1263 Words

Johnstown Flood 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 wasnt completed till 1852 due to financial difficulties. (Johnstown Historical Society) The dam itself spanned a gap of 918 feet across the valley†¦show more content†¦It didnt take long for the South Fork dam to become so overwhelmed that it broke and dumped water onto the town causing the deaths of 2,200 people. This was not the first problem they had with the dam though; structural problems with the dam w ere not a new development. Only two years after the finishing of the dam 2 leaks were discovered before the dam was even put into its full usage. They were forced to empty the dam so they could repair it. The dam suffered a major break on June 10, 1862, when the up-stream portion of the stone culvert running under the dam collapsed (Haddock, Vikki). There was little damage to property downstream, but a large section of the dam over the damaged portion of the culvert collapsed and was washed away. They dam was then closed and left with the large gap in it because of financial reasons until 1875 when the Pennsylvania Railroad sold the dam and also 500 acres to Benjamin Ruff who wanted to turn the area into a summer resort. Ruffs plan was to fill in the gap left in the dam and allow the lake behind it to refill to make a resort and the remaining water would run-off he had decided to sell the valves used to control the run-off for scrap metal (Johannson, Shelley). Ruff had hired a man to fill the gap who had some experience building railway embankments but no experience with dams. The plan was to add a double thickness of hemlock pilings was placed acrossShow MoreRelated Johnstown Flood Essay1199 Words   |  5 Pagesof the Johnstown Flood of May 31st 1889, which provides arguments for why the disaster was both â€Å"the work of man† and â€Å"a visitation of providence†. However, it is apparent that McCullough believes that man was more responsible than nature/god for the extent of the catastrophe. In McCullough’s opinion, the storm that caused the flood was no more than the inevitable stimulus of the disaster, whereas the deferred maintenance and poor repairs on the dam were the primary reason that Johnstown was devastatedRead MoreThe Great Flood Of 18891385 Words   |  6 PagesAlso known as the â€Å"Great Flood of 1889,† the Johnstown flood occurred when a local man-made dam failed, unleashing millions of gallons of water and ca using utter destruction in its wake. On May 31st, 1889,   at around 3:10 p.m., about 14 miles from Johnstown, PA, the South Fork Dam was overcome by several structural shortcomings and   failed. This allowed millions of gallons of water to surge through the Conemaugh Valley, leaving little in its wake (NPS). There were a total of 111 days of rainfallRead MoreEssay on Flooding719 Words   |  3 Pages floods Thousands of years ago before people built towns and planted crops, rivers cut deep canyons and molded the continents. 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It cost the Mississippi Valley over $350 million in today’s standardsRead MoreFlood and National Weather Service2288 Words   |  10 PagesA flash flood is a rapid flooding of geomorphic low-lying areas - washes, rivers, dry lakes and basins. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a storm, hurricane, or tropical storm or melt water from ice or snow flowing over ice sheets or snowfields. Flash floods can also occur after the collapse of a natural ice or debris dam, or a human structure such as a man-made dam, as occurred before the Johnstown Flood of 1889. Flash floods are distinguished from a regular flood by a timescale lessRead MoreFlood and National Weather Service2299 Words   |  10 PagesA flash flood is a rapid flooding of geomorphic low-lying areas - washes, rivers, dry lakes and basins. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a storm, hurricane, or tropical storm or melt water from ice or snow flowing over ice sheets or snowfields. 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