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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. — John Shaqi

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.

Name: 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.
Author: Johnson, Willis Fletcher

Johnson, Willis Fletcher

Floods -- Pennsylvania -- Johnstown (Cambria County)

"If it is true that the waste-gates were never opened after the
Pittsburgh men had leased the lake, the explanation of the bursting of
the dam is to be found right there. It may be that the dam had not been
looked after and strengthened of late years, and it was undoubtedly
weakened in the period of twenty-five years during which the lake was
not used. After the construction of the dam the lake was called the
Western Reservoir. The south fork of the Conemaugh, which fed the lake,
is a little stream not over ten feet wide, but even when there were no
unusual storms it carried enough water to fill the lake full within a
year, showing how important it was that the gates should be opened
occasionally to run off the surplus."

Mr. Montgomery was one of a party of engineers who inspected the dam
when it was leased by the Pennsylvania Company, five years ago. It then
needed repairs, but was in a perfectly safe condition if the water was
not allowed to flow over it.




CHAPTER III.


Friday, May 31st, 1889. The day before had been a solemn holiday. In
every village veterans of the War for the Union had gathered; in every
cemetery flowers had been strewn upon the grave-mounds of the heroic
dead. Now the people were resuming the every-day toil. The weather was
rainy. It had been wet for some days. Stony Creek and Conemaugh were
turbid and noisy. The little South Fork, which ran into the upper end of
the lake, was swollen into a raging torrent. The lake was higher than
usual; higher than ever. But the valley below lay in fancied security,
and all the varied activities of life pursued their wonted round.

Friday, May 31st, 1889. Record that awful date in characters of funereal
hue. It was a dark and stormy day, and amid the darkness and the storm
the angel of death spread his wings over the fated valley, unseen,
unknown. Midday comes. Disquieting rumors rush down the valley. There is
a roar of an approaching storm--approaching doom! The water swiftly
rises. A horseman thunders down the valley: "To the hills, for God's
sake! To the hills, for your lives!" They stare at him as at a madman,
and their hesitating feet linger in the valley of the shadow of death,
and the shadow swiftly darkens, and the everlasting hills veil their
faces with rain and mist before the scene that greets them.

This is what happened:--

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