The Johnstown Flood

One of the most tragic things about the Johnstown Flood is that it could have been prevented. While it was true that the storm that broke the dam was extreme—“the worst downpour that had ever been recorded for that section of the country” (21)—the reality is that with proper regard for the state of the dam, the disaster could have been avoided. The people of Johnstown were used to flooding and the general displacement of services that came with living in a valley in that region, so when the rain started the afternoon of the preceding day, nobody paid it much mind (an understandable oversight, given the circumstances). The problem, of course, was that this was to be no ordinary storm and no ordinary flooding.

The flood that would sweep away the vast majority of Johnstown the next day was on its way, but almost nobody in town seemed worried yet. Andrew Carnegie, one of the richest men America has ever produced, had a home in Johnstown just a stone’s throw from the hotel in town, and he viewed it as “his only real home in Pennsylvania” (50) at the time. He preferred to live in the mountains, having long since given up living in