History of the Johnstown Flood: Including all the Fearful Record; the Breaking of the South Fork Dam; the Sweeping Out of the Conemaugh Valley; the Over-Throw of Johnstown; the Massing of the Wreck at the Railroad Bridge; Escapes, Rescues, Searches for Survivors and the Dead; Relief Organizations, Stupendous Charities, etc., etc., With Full Accounts also of the Destruction on the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers, and the Bald Eagle Creek.Johnson, Willis Fletcher
History
History of the Johnstown Flood: Including all the Fearful Record; the Breaking of the South Fork Dam; the Sweeping Out of the Conemaugh Valley; the Over-Throw of Johnstown; the Massing of the Wreck at the Railroad Bridge; Escapes, Rescues, Searches for Survivors and the Dead; Relief Organizations, Stupendous Charities, etc., etc., With Full Accounts also of the Destruction on the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers, and the Bald Eagle Creek.
In September, 1687, mountain torrents inundated Navarre, and two
thousand persons were drowned. Twice, in 1787 and in 1802, the Irish
Liffey overran its banks and caused great damage. A reservoir in Lurca,
a city of Spain, burst in 1802, in much the same way as did the dam at
Johnstown, and as a result one thousand persons perished. Twenty-four
villages near Presburg, and nearly all their inhabitants, were swept
away in April, 1811, by an overflow of the Danube. Two years later large
provinces in Austria and Poland were flooded, and many lives were lost.
In the same year a force of two thousand Turkish soldiers, who were
stationed on a small island near Widdin, were surprised by a sudden
overflow of the Danube and all were drowned. There were two more floods
in this year, one in Silesia, where six thousand persons perished, and
the French army met such losses and privations that its ruin was
accelerated; and another in Poland, where four thousand persons were
supposed to have been drowned. In 1816 the melting of the snow on the
mountains surrounding Strabane, Ireland, caused destructive floods, and
the overflow of the Vistula in Germany laid many villages under water.
Floods that occasioned great suffering occurred in 1829, when severe
rains caused the Spey and Findhorn to rise fifty feet above their
ordinary level. The following year the Danube again overflowed its
banks and inundated the houses of fifty thousand inhabitants of Vienna.
The Saone overflowed in 1840, and poured its turbulent waters into the
Rhine, causing a flood which covered sixty thousand acres. Lyons was
flooded, one hundred houses were swept away at Avignon, two hundred and
eighteen at La Guillotiere, and three hundred at Vaise, Marseilles, and
Nimes. Another great flood, entailing much suffering, occurred in the
south of France in 1856.
A flood in Mill River valley in 1874 was caused by the bursting of a
badly constructed dam. The waters poured down upon the villages in the
valley much as at Johnstown, but the people received warning in time,
and the torrent was not so swift. Several villages were destroyed and
one hundred and forty-four persons drowned. The rising of the Garonne in
1875 caused the death of one thousand persons near Toulouse, and twenty
thousand persons were made homeless in India by floods in the same year.
In 1882 heavy floods destroyed a large amount of property and drowned
many persons in the Mississippi and Ohio valleys.
The awful disaster in the Conemaugh Valley calls attention to the fact
that there are many similar dams throughout the United States. Though
few of these overhang a narrow gorge like the one in which the borough
of Johnstown reposed, there is no question that several of the dams now
deemed safe would, if broken down by a sudden freshet, sweep down upon
peaceful hamlets, cause immense damage to property and loss of life. The
lesson taught by the awful scenes at Johnstown should not go unheeded.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account