The residents of Johnstown, Pennsylvania in the late 1800’s were no strangers to floods. Sitting at the confluence of the Stonycreek River and the Little Conemaugh River, the booming city often went under water.
An eight-inch rain that passed through the region in May of 1889 had submerged much of downtown Johnstown under several feet of water but people were coping, however the South Fork Dam, some 14 miles miles up the Conemaugh Valley was about to let loose, releasing millions of gallons of water that would smash everything in its path.
As the flood wave came down the valley, the bottom of the wave moved slower than the top, so the top was constantly cascading forward creating a ball of water that pushed debris ahead of it. “So when people saw the flood wave it didn’t look like water, it looked like a 25 or 30 foot high mountain of wreckage,” said Richard Burkert, Johnstown Area Heritage Association President. “People thought there had been an industrial accident.”
After barreling through downtown, the wave of water and debris slammed into the hillside where the inclined plane sits today, sending much of its energy up the Stonycreek for several miles. That bit of physics saved the now iconic stone bridge over the Conemaugh, which became a trap for the debris that had been ripped loose by the flood.
“The wreckage backed up behind the stone bridge covering 30 acres to depths of up to 30 feet,” said Burkert.
On the night of May 31st that debris caught fire and burned for three days before firefighters from Pittsburgh could come in by rail to put out the flames.
“Tank cars full of… kerosene soaked down through the mass. Houses with their coal stoves still burning washed against it. So you had a funeral pyre here,” said Burkert
Aid from around the world began to rush into the hobbled city in the form of cash, goods and volunteers. The devastation was front page news in all of the East Coast and Midwest papers for days, if not weeks.
“It was the 9/11 of the time,” said Burkert. “It was a catalyzing event.”
The people of Johnstown quickly began to rebuild their town and their lives. An important rolling mill was up and running in days, bringing commerce back to the city. But it was impossible to ignore that an estimated 2,209 lives were lost. 777 of their bodies were never claimed and three years later were buried together in neat rows in the Grandview Cemetery.
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