It is June 1889, and a country is in shock, an entire community has been washed away,
and 2,209 people are feared dead.
A dam has failed sending a deluge down stream, the event would become one of the country's
worst disasters, and would be the measuring stick in which all future tragedies would
be compared against.
The event would permeate itself into the American psyche and leave behind haunting images of
death, destruction and the thought that at any moment everything you know and love could
come to an end.
Today we are looking at the Johnstown flood.
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Our story starts with a construction project, the main line of public works.
The plan was to provide the best commercial means of transportation between Philadelphia
and Pittsburgh via railways, canals and roads.
Part of this project was to create a reservoir for the canal system to supply water during
low-flow periods and in order to make that happen a dam was needed.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania set out to build the new dam which would be later known
as the south fork starting construction in 1838.
The design was to make use of an earth- and rock-fill arrangement; it was around 72 feet
high, 918 feet long, 220 feet wide at its base tapering up to 10 feet wide at its crest.
The south fork dam had 2 means of controlling the reservoir's water level, although one
had a greater level of control than the other, the arrangement was pretty standard for such
a construction of its time.
A Control tower was provided for the outlet works, this consisted of 5 cast iron pipes
each with a valve for releasing varying amounts of flow of water, which ran into a stone culvert
with a discharge chamber, which itself led to the downstream face of the south fork dam.
The second method of level control was the good old spillway, this was cut into the rock
along the east abutment, and was 70 feet wide, although the original plans called for a minimum
of 150 feet.
The shiny new dam was completed around 1852/53, but the canal network would become a victim
of one of the industrial revolution's greatest achievements, the railway.
Just about 5 years after its completion the dam became abandoned and was sold off to the
Pennsylvania railroad.
Needless to say the PRR wasn't that bothered with owning a dam, and as such this led to
the maintenance of the south fork falling pretty low on the companies priorities list.
In July 1862 just a decade after completion the south fork would experience its first
failure, the outlet works stone culvert collapsed and a portion of the dam breached gradually,
draining the lake in half a day.
Even as I edit this video I'm surprised at just how quickly things fell apart.
(Add in footage of computer editing.)
No longer needing the area in which the dam now semi collapsed lived, the PRR set about
selling it off as a parcel incorpering the dam and lake in 1875 to John Reilly, a former
congressman.
This now rather large property prospect once again changed hands in 1879 when Benjamin
Ruff took over control.
He wanted to create a resort for the rich and successful, making use of the lake and
surrounding area for fishing and hunting, in doing so he created the South Fork Fishing
and Hunting Club.
But for this new elite playground to be a success, the old and partially failed south
fork dam needed to be rebuilt.
Ruff set about reconstructing the south fork, but some of the changes to the design would
prove to be fatal.
The 5 cast iron discharge pipes were no more as before the sale to ruff, John Reilly who
was making a loss in his deal with Benjamin had removed the metal to sell it off as scrap,
although i should say this accusation has been disputed over the years.
The new and improved south fork dam sported a lowered crest by 2 feet, no discharge pipes,
And the failed portion being replaced by fill that consisted of clay, brush, mining wastes
and hay.
To add further structural issues the dressed stone originally placed on the upstream face
was not replaced, leading to the water to come into direct contact with the main structural
material heightening the risk of erosion and seepage.
With no outlet works, the only method of reservoir level control was by means of the spillway,
which if you remember from earlier was already too small for its application on the south
fork.
To protect fishing profits, the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club decided to use netting
over the entrance to the spillway to prevent any fish being lost to the flow of water.
But it would not only stop fish and allow for a build up of debris, reducing the spillways
efficiency, all of this made the dam not very resistant to storms and flooding.
Eventually the material used to repair the embankment settled, creating a low point on
the dam's crest increasing the potential for overtopping which would concentrate flow over
an already weakened section of the structure.
After the dam was rebuilt the lake it held back was about 2 miles (3.2 km) long, about
1 mile (1.6 km) wide, and 60 feet (18 m) deep, but the reconstructed structure would cause
no ended of headaches for the owners with constraint leaks springing out requiring spot
repairs of hay and mud.
Johnstown’s history spans all the way back to a settlement established in 1791, as the
18th century gave way to the 19th, the town saw growth along with the use of Pennsylvania
Main Line Canal in which it was a port and key transfer point.
But things would really start to pick up with the demise of the canals and the rise of the
railways, almost like a direct opposite to the life of the south fork dam.
The town which called home to the Cambria Iron Company of Johnstown was the leading
steel producer in the United States, outproducing steel from Pittsburgh and Cleveland.
By the 1880s Cambria Works had grown to become a huge enterprise sprawling over 60 acres
(24 ha) in Johnstown and employing 7,000.
This boom had been fueled by the company being the country's main supplier of barbed wire
allowing the town's economy to support a population of around 30,000.
The area had become known as a flooding hotspot towards the end of the 19th century as increased
rainfall led to rising water levels in the valley.
And the rain would blight the area in 1889, when the streets of johns town once again
could be seen with a sheen of pooling water, towards the end of may.
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A low-pressure area formed over Nebraska and Kansas on the 28th of may 1889, 2 days later
the weather was now over western Pennsylvania, and causing record breaking rainfall.
6 to 10 inches (150 to 250 mm) of rain fell in 24 hours over the region, swelling the
banks of streams into large torrents.
Some of Johnstown's streets were flooded in the rainfall, leading many residents to be
stranded inside their homes.
On the morning of the 31 of may 1889 the Lake Conemaugh con-e-marrh had become swollen after
a night of heavy rainfall, the lake level was now near cresting the south fork dam.
Elias Unger, president of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, assembled a gang of men
to try and save the dam.
They went to the now clogged spillway, which had caught debris in its netting, and tried
to clear the blockage, but to little success.
Unger sent out a messenger to the nearest telegraph station to inform the residents
of Johnstown below, but this would not reach its destination.
Despite the efforts to save the dam the writing was on the wall and Unger ordered his men
to retreat to high ground at 1:30pm.
The men could See the inevitable begin to unfold, as the dam breached between 2:50 and
2:55 pm sending a deluge of water down the valley towards johnstown.
It would take just over an hour to empty Lake Conemaugh’s con-e-marrh 3.843 billion gallons,
this effluent traveled down the 14 miles towards Johnstown, picking up debris up with the flow.
The water was slowed down at the Conemaugh Viaduct, but after just 7 minutes this failed,
adding renewed force to the flood waters.
Enroute to Johnstown The small town of Mineral Point, was completely washed away, the flood
next hit the Cambria Iron Works at the town of Woodvale,picking up with it railway carriages
scrap metal and barbed wire.
Just under an hour after the breach of the south fork dam, the flood hit johnstown proper,
the torrent of eluent traveling at speeds of nearly 40mph, hitting buildings, people,
and vehicles.
The debris of barbed wire rubble and other material crushed anyone out in the street
and bombarded the towns standing structures.
The water reached Stone Bridge, this became a pinch point where debris was pushed up against
it creating a small dam, pushing water out in different directions causing other parts
of the town to flood.
Eventually the build up of debris caused a fire, adding to the carnage.
Hundreds of residents were stranded and hundreds of the dead were swept away, with some reaching
as far as cincinnati.
777 bodies were never identified, and a total of 2208 deaths were linked to the dam breach.
Around 1600 homes were destroyed and 99 families completely wiped out, the cost was approximately
$17 million in property damage including 4 square miles (10 km2) of downtown Johnstown
completely destroyed.
The clean up would go on for years, but essential services were quickly put back to work within
a few days including the railroad and parts of the steel works, although the latter would
only resume full operation nearly 18 months later.
Early rescue and clean up effort were hindered by the vast amounts of barbed wire amongst
the debris, which clinged to the ground and caused injuries to any would be emergency
worker.
On june the 5th founder Clara Barton, of the American Red Cross made it to the town, leading
to the disaster to become the organization's first major mission.
The rescue and relief efforts would mean Barton would stay at Johnstown for 5 months.
The disaster had the benefit of being the subject of a large number of photographs which
helped in raising funds for the town and its victims.
With such destruction and death left in its wake, the root cause had to be found, and
if possible discover who was responsible.
//////////
Clearly the cause of the torrent of water was the south fork dam, and its severely weakened
reconstruction, but the conclusions of investigations at the time hinted that even in its original
fully functional state that the dam would have failed.
Strangely the report from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) went unpublished
to the public for 2 years after their initial findings for not wanting to be dragged into
any potential litigation.
The results essentially got the highly wealthy owners of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting
Club off the hook of responsibility, but the public knew differently.
The club never had to face any legal ramifications, being able to write the event off as an act
of god, but a 2016 re evaluation of the disaster proved that the extensive and improper modification
to the dam was the root cause of it failing, although this is long after those responsible
could have been given their legal just desserts.
Although legally dodging the liability many of the club's members did pay significant
amounts to Johnstown including club co-founder Henry Clay Frick, and millionaires like Andrew
Carnegie.
Although the victims of the accident didn't feel like they received justice, the event
became etched into the country's culture leaving a legacy for more than 100 years.
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4946313/
https://damfailures.org/case-study/south-fork-dam-pennsylvania-1889/