On this day 124 years ago, the city of Johnstown, Pennsylvania was destroyed by the worst flash flood in our nation's history. The flood was caused by extreme amounts of rain swelling the man-made Lake Conemaugh to epic heights, which caused its poorly-maintained earthen dam to collapse. The lake completely emptied, sending a wall of water equal to the flow of the Mississippi River down the Little Conemaugh River Valley. Several smaller towns along the way were destroyed as the flood moved downstream, during which time the water became filled with all sorts of debris: wood, metal, livestock, trees, stone. Johnstown was hit in the mid-afternoon, less than an hour after the dam broke. The devastation in Johnstown was indescribable. Over 2,200 people perished in the flood. Sixty-seven year old Clara Barton and her 'forces' arrived less than a week later to help survivors; it was the first large disaster relief campaign headed by the Red Cross.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
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Source: Wikimedia Commons
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Source: Wikimedia Commons
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My husband and I visited the National Park Service's Johnstown National Memorial in 2004. We attended a wedding not far from there, and, both being meteorologists, we were very interested in the event. The Memorial site is located at the site of the former Lake Conemaugh, fourteen miles upstream of Johnstown. I took several photos:
Imagine this basin full of water (those railroad tracks were not there). This was Lake Conemaugh. At the time of the flood, it held approximately 20 million TONS of water. The lake was surrounded by a large clubhouse and lake houses owned by members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, a summertime haven for wealthy Pennsylvania executives and entrepreneurs, including Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and Andrew W. Mellon.
Imagine this basin full of water (those railroad tracks were not there). This was Lake Conemaugh. At the time of the flood, it held approximately 20 million TONS of water. The lake was surrounded by a large clubhouse and lake houses owned by members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, a summertime haven for wealthy Pennsylvania executives and entrepreneurs, including Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and Andrew W. Mellon.
Part of the basin of the former Lake Conemaugh.
Here I am standing at the site of the dam. If you look across the river, you can still see where one side of the dam was situated.
And here is the view downstream, through the opening where the dam used to be. I drew a red line to indicate (roughly) where the top of the dam would have been located.
Looking downstream through dam opening.
Like most National Parks sites, this one was wonderfully informative and interesting. I highly recommend visiting if you are ever in this part of Pennsylvania. Now that I do a lot of genealogy research, I find myself looking at this disaster from more of a family history perspective. Ninety-nine entire families completely perished in the disaster. Almost 100 children lost BOTH parents, and more than 320 people lost a spouse. Over seven hundred victims were never identified, but their remains are buried in Grandview Cemetery, which sits on a hill overlooking the town of Johnstown. Not only did this disaster affect the physical structures of Johnstown, but it forever altered the stories of these families.
For a detailed account of the flood and its aftermath, I highly recommend reading David McCullough's book, The Johnstown Flood. I'll leave you with one more neat image I found on Wikimedia Commons. It is an 1889 stereoscope of the dam site after it collapsed (looking upstream).
For a detailed account of the flood and its aftermath, I highly recommend reading David McCullough's book, The Johnstown Flood. I'll leave you with one more neat image I found on Wikimedia Commons. It is an 1889 stereoscope of the dam site after it collapsed (looking upstream).
Source: Wikimedia Commons
