Johnstown Flood
NOAA - Historic NWS Collection
Location: Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Photo Date: 1889 June
Photographer: Archival Photograph by Mr. Steve Nicklas, NOS, NGS
By Josh Anderson
Johnstown,Pennsylvania sits close to the Sandy Point River in the Allegheny Mountains. The Sandy Point River leads to Pittsburgh. Many people made a living by mining iron ore and sending it to Pittsburgh. One of the largest iron companies was the Cambria Iron Company. It had over 7000 workers. Because of the large employment many people moved to Johnstown. The town grew very quickly. It had dozens of stores and hundreds of houses. It also had 26 churches, and 20 schools.
In 1843 the state of Pennsylvania built a dam. It was 15 miles up stream from Johnstown. The dam was 930 feet across. That is as long as 3 football fields. It was 72 feet high, the same as a 7 story building. The dam was an earth dam made from layers of earth and clay. The dam is the largest man made dam in the world.
In 1862 the dam broke, but luckily the drain let water out water slowly causing little damage down stream. Seventeen years later, in 1879, Benjamin Ruff bought the dam for a private men's club. He repaired the dam without an engineer to supervise the repairs. Daniel Morrell, in charge of the Cambria Iron Company , thought the dam might brake. He hired John Fulton to look at the dam. Fulton reported that the dam was not safe. Ruff ignored this.
Anything that was in it's path was washed away. Sixteen hundred houses, along with barns, fences, telegraph poles, farm animals, and streets were stripped from the ground. Locomotives that weighed more than 170,000 pounds were snatched up. Hundreds of railroad cars were swept away. Mills were destroyed. Two hundred sixty businesses were demolished. Their was no drinking water left. Lots of people were dead and had to be buried. Ninety nine whole families were killed.
There were 6,000 volunteer firemen from Pittsburgh who came to Johnstown to help with clean up in the first week. Lumberjacks cut up debris. Trains brought in supplies like bedding, tents, clothing, food, medicine and bandages. Men had to carry the supplies the final miles after the track was destroyed.The state of Pennsylvania sent soldiers. Clara Barton, founder of the Red Cross, arrived five days after the flood to set up temporary housing and provide meals. About $3,742,818 of donations was sent. Bodies were buried every day for weeks after the flood.
NOAA - Historic NWS Collection
Location: Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Photo Date: 1889 June
Photographer: Archival Photograph by Mr. Steve Nicklas, NOS, NGS