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The Johnstown Flood

4.05 of 5 stars 4.05 · rating details · 5,373 ratings · 515 reviews

At the end of the last century, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was a booming coal-and-steel town filled with hardworking families striving for a piece of the nation's burgeoning industrial prosperity. In the mountains above Johnstown, an old earth dam had been hastily rebuilt to create a lake for an exclusive summer resort patronized by the tycoons of that same industrial prospe

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Hardcover, 302 pages

Published June 1st 1987 by Peter Smith Publisher (first published March 18th 1968)

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Mar 12, 2008 Brooks rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Excellent history of the flood of May 31, 1889. A dam supporting a lake for summer retreat for Pittsburgh’s finest (Frick, Phillips, Carnegie, Mellon) burst. The engineering is interesting. The dam was earthen, which is still very common. However, an earthen dam needs to be higher in the center (if a dam overflows, it should be at the edges), a spill way over rock (earth erodes under fast water), and a discharge system to maintain water level. In this case, the original Dam was properly built to...more Excellent history of the flood of May 31, 1889. A dam supporting a lake for summer retreat for Pittsburgh’s finest (Frick, Phillips, Carnegie, Mellon) burst. The engineering is interesting. The dam was earthen, which is still very common. However, an earthen dam needs to be higher in the center (if a dam overflows, it should be at the edges), a spill way over rock (earth erodes under fast water), and a discharge system to maintain water level. In this case, the original Dam was properly built to support a trans-Pennsylvania canal in the early 1800s. However, that went into disrepair after the railroads started and the canal was abandoned. Then in the 1870s, Ruff sets up the South Fork fishing club and buys the property including dam from the Pennsylvania railroad and re-builds the dam sloppily. The Dam fails ten years later. The flood kills 2300 people (about 1 in 10 in the valley). The Dam broke at 3:10 and it took an hour to travel the 15 miles to Johnstown. Everyone in Johnstown had been saying the dam would break some spring and disregarded the few initial warnings. Johnstown was already flooded due to large spring rains, but up to 1-2 feet in the center of town. In the tight areas of the Valley, the wall of water was 70’ high. It would bounce off hillsides and come back to destroy small villages missed. There was a large railroad viaduct, then held for 10 minutes fill the valley behind it to the same level of water as what had been in the original lake prior to failing which strengthened the water as it collapsed all at once. The greatest calamity happened at a bridge in the lower part of town. The bridge held, but then had 45 acres of debris held up. This caught fire with hundreds of people still strapped. Many were rescued but many survived the flood only to be burned to death. While the members of the club were vilified in the press (not the individual members as the list was not know until a year later), none was held financial responsible or criminally negligent. (less)

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May 19, 2011 Shelli rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ecc-book-club, books-of-2011

I am reading this book as Memphis is on the local news about flooding...interesting timing. But most of all, I am reminded about a great flood in my childhood which occurred in 1972 in Rapid City, SD, near my hometown. That year 238 people died in a flash flood, reminiscent of this one, although no dam was the culprit for that flood. The Johnstown Flood was over 10 times as bad. Why didn't I learn of it in US History class? This was excellent research. It was interesting to learn about all the d...more

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Mar 15, 2013 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: american-history, non-fiction

It is a good book. I like the fact that it covered the event fairly well. Pre-flood.. the event... and post flood. It kind of read like a newspaper article though. There was some detail but I have read other disaster books that almost seemed to put you there. This was not quite that well written, but was still a great account of the Johnstown flood. If you are a fan of "natural" disasters, like me, it is a good read and a nice addition to your library.

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Feb 18, 2009 Ross rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of the railroad age

Shelves: audiobook, history, 19th-century

I picked up this, the first of McCullough's three "civil engineering" micro-histories, to scratch my itch of a notion that the flood was a seminal event in US history.

Turns out that notion was only half right. The Johnstown Flood was a seminal event. The cataract was terrible and awesome and one of a kind. But the story has mostly faded from history. Unlike other national disasters (eg, the attacks on Pearl Harbor and 9/11), this one didn't blossom into a nation-rallying justification for kicki...more

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Mar 08, 2013 John Frazier rated it 4 of 5 stars

It was after seeing something about this 1889 disaster on television that I decided I needed to know more about The Johnstown Flood, and David McCullough's chronicle couldn't have been more engaging or enjoyable.

To set the scene, a group of rich industrialists and businessmen, including Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon, buy and develop the area surrounding and including Lake Conemaugh, a manmade lake created by damming the Southfork River, about 15 miles up the canyon from Johnstown, Pennsylvan...more It was after seeing something about this 1889 disaster on television that I decided I needed to know more about The Johnstown Flood, and David McCullough's chronicle couldn't have been more engaging or enjoyable.

To set the scene, a group of rich industrialists and businessmen, including Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon, buy and develop the area surrounding and including Lake Conemaugh, a manmade lake created by damming the Southfork River, about 15 miles up the canyon from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, turning it into a private retreat for the wealthy and privileged. It is estimated that the lake holds roughly 20 million tons of water.

On Memorial Day 1889, the skies open up and a deluge ensues, testing the limits of the dam, which has been shortened (and weakened) by members in an effort to create a road across it. An estimated 10 inches of rain fall, not only raising the alarm of residents downstream, but the level of the lake. Of course, it eventually gives way, its contents coursing downhill with the force of ocean currents, gathering and consuming anything and anybody in its path.

By the time it passes through Johnstown (and neighboring upstream communities), there is barely a structure standing; even the trains parked alongside the canyon walls are washed from their tracks and ferried downstream on 40-foot waves. Largely ignoring the warnings they'd heard before or ignorant of them, nearly 2,300 people would lose their lives by the time the flood passed and the water and mud receded enough to search for survivors, ranking it among the worst natural disasters of all time. (To put it into context, roughly 6,000 perished in the Galveston Flood of 1900; 2,500 perished at Pearl Harbor.)

As devastated as all are, the resilience and courage of those left behind is as impressive a story as that of the flood. Clara Barton leads the newly-formed Red Cross into town for its first major disaster relief effort, and it ends up staying months as the town struggles to rebuild.

McCullough did an admirable job of piecing together the available accounts, many generated by a media frenzy unparalleled at the time as reporters and photographers converged from all corners of the globe. That said, I wish there'd been more attention given to the lawsuits that followed, filed largely by the survivors against the club whose (lack of) maintenance arguably led to the demise of the dam. Without revealing the results of those trials, suffice it to say that should a similar disaster take place today, it would takes years, if not decades, to determine who ultimately bore responsibility. Such was not the case then.

Well worthwhile. Enjoy.

(less)

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Feb 24, 2013 Cheryl A rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Well researched, The Johnstown Flood is David McCullough's first book and sets the tone for his future works. We often here the phrase "write what you know", and McCullough, a Pittsburgh native, picked for his first subject an event that happened in the area.

Memorial Day 1889 in Johnstown saw massive rainfall, both in the valley and in the mountains above.
The following day, with the rain continuing, the earthen dam at the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club could no longer hold back the rise in...more

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Feb 14, 2013 John rated it 3 of 5 stars

I know that it is just because I'm a history snob now and I read a LOT of academic history books, but sometimes when I'm experiencing a pop history book like this now I can't help thinking, what's the point of this? What is this all supposed to mean? McCullough sort of has a point he is making here about the Gilded Age and growing American class identities and holding people responsible for environmental disasters, but he only really makes any kind of argument right at the end of the book and on...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Shakespearesgirl rated it 1 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This was the first book I ever ready by David McCullough, and quite honestly, it put me off his writing for years. (I did finally give him another chance, and was pleasantly surprised to find he was not as horrible as I thought.)

The problem with this book is that really, the Johnstown flood does not deserve a book. Half a book, maybe, or a nice documentary film, but not a whole book. The events were simple: Johnstown decides to let rich people play around with their dam, dam gets into disrepair,...more This was the first book I ever ready by David McCullough, and quite honestly, it put me off his writing for years. (I did finally give him another chance, and was pleasantly surprised to find he was not as horrible as I thought.)

The problem with this book is that really, the Johnstown flood does not deserve a book. Half a book, maybe, or a nice documentary film, but not a whole book. The events were simple: Johnstown decides to let rich people play around with their dam, dam gets into disrepair, torrential rains cause catastrophic flood. I was less than shocked at the sequence of events, and McCullough's apparent surprise and horror was . . . well, it was bothersome. I felt like he switched back and forth between cynical "of course this was going to happen" narrative and "dear sweet Jesus, what in the name of heaven is going on?" exclamations too quickly--perhaps even the fact that he switched between them at all is cause for worry and disappointment.

Aside from the narrative style, the book is too long. McCullough goes into too much depth about the rich people who built the resort above the town, and too much into the culture that would allow such excess next to such negligence. Really, all he needed to do was explain what the resort was, that there were famous millionaires staying there, and move on. I was more curious about the working class families and the single men and women living in Johnstown than I was about Andrew Carnegie and the Rockefellers. There was simply not enough reason to care about the town, and by the time the dam broke and the town began flooding, I was ready to give up on the whole thing all together.

I did keep reading to the end, mostly because the carnage and violence of the flood was the most fascinating part of the book, but in the end, I still didn't care about the families who watched helplessly from the hills as their loved ones were swept into the debris, drowned, or set on fire by the burning debris and coal (Johnstown was a mining town). I didn't care about people trapped in attics for weeks, and I didn't care about the aftermath, even though the thought of families walking down aisle of dead bodies hoping to find someone the recognized was heart wrenching.

Basically, this book was too long, a little dry, and focused in the wrong places and on the wrong people.(less)

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Sep 03, 2012 Tamhack rated it 3 of 5 stars

I always like David McCullough's presentation of historical events. He did another excellent job on this event also.

This book tells what lead up to the flood on May 31, 1889 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a coal and steel town, and the aftermath.

Like today, many bad events happen because people do not step up and become accountable for their actions.
It was reported:
"We do not consider there is much cause alarm, as even in the event of the dyke breaking there is plenty of room for water to spread...more I always like David McCullough's presentation of historical events. He did another excellent job on this event also.

This book tells what lead up to the flood on May 31, 1889 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a coal and steel town, and the aftermath.

Like today, many bad events happen because people do not step up and become accountable for their actions.
It was reported:
"We do not consider there is much cause alarm, as even in the event of the dyke breaking there is plenty of room for water to spread out before reaching here, and no damage of moment would result.
There it was, in one sentence. In the first place, the dam was probably sound, and even it it did fail not a great deal would happen since the dam was so far away. It was a strange piece of reasoning to say the least, but there it was in the evening paper for every one, including the alarmists, to read and talk about."

"Certainly there was every reason to have been concerned. The valley from the lake down to Johnstown had sides as steep as a sluice, and there was only one ways the water could go if the dam failed. Floods hit the area almost as regularly as spring itself. Johnstown rarely got through a year without water in the streets at least once, and often for several days at a time."

The book description of the flood makes real the power of water.

The description of the destruction from the water. It heart rending about the people who drowned but at the same a miracle the way others survived.

Then how and what is the best why to to serve those who survived as with all disasters but remember this is in 1889. But it is good to see the good see the good side of humans and pulling together to help.

The story also show bad journalistic reporting and the effects and good journalistic reporting--the benefits that good journalistic reporting can do and help.

"So while there is no question that an "act of God" (the storm of the night of May 30-31) brought on the disaster, there is also no question that it was, in the last analysis, mortal man who was truly to blame. And if the men of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, as well as the men of responsibility in Johnstown, had in retrospect looked dispassionately to themselves, and not their stars, to find fault, they would have seen that they had been party to two crucial mistakes.
1. The dame was the most dramatic violation of the natural order--setting in a whole series of chain reaction...
2. The people in the area assumed that the people responsible for their safety were behaving responsibly...
(less)

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May 28, 2012 Jgrace rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, non-fiction

The Johnstown Flood – D. McCullough
Audio version performed by Edward Herrmann
3.5 stars (round to 4)

It was a Memorial Day weekend in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. It was 1889. David McCullough tells the story of the catastrophic disaster with an admirable balance of dry facts and human interest. As he traces the geological, meteorological and industrial history of Johnstown, he also paints a very human picture of its inhabitants. His account of the disaster intersperses with amazing survival stories...more

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Jan 31, 2012 Gary Schantz rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read this book for its historical content. I know that the author is been revered as a great historian who voice overs are heard in a few Ken Burns documentaries. However, I found that there is such thing as too much narration. I bet I read about at least 5 men who wore mutton-chops...some grey, some overgrown but all basically mutton-chops. Who cares? I was reading this book to learn how this flood occurred and its impact on the people.

If some of the narration was edited out (like edited for...more

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Jan 09, 2012 Kristine Buchholtz rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, favorites

Imagine a busy Memorial Day Weekend in the late 1800's in a booming industrial town. Relentless rain is inundating the festivities and rivers are steadily rising, slowly drenching everything in sight. Overall, the locals and visitors are in good spirits, making the best out of a bad situation with good humor and determination. Looming 14 miles away from this bustling coal-and-steel town, a reservoir holding 20 million gallons of water is reaching its breaking point. Just as darkness falls, the d...more Imagine a busy Memorial Day Weekend in the late 1800's in a booming industrial town. Relentless rain is inundating the festivities and rivers are steadily rising, slowly drenching everything in sight. Overall, the locals and visitors are in good spirits, making the best out of a bad situation with good humor and determination. Looming 14 miles away from this bustling coal-and-steel town, a reservoir holding 20 million gallons of water is reaching its breaking point. Just as darkness falls, the dam catastrophically fails, and the scant warnings to the valley below have not been heeded by those responsible for calling the alarm. By the time the water has traveled the 14 miles to the Johnstown's center, it hits with the force of Niagara Falls. This is the true story of the Johnstown Flood of 1889.

Powerful, poignant and devastating...David McCullough gives his readers a thoroughly researched and vivid account of a careless disaster. On the first day of the Johnstown disaster, 2209 lives would be lost, with many more succumbing to the elements, their injuries, and disease during the recovery and rebuild of Johnstown. The most devastating part? The horrors that these folks experienced could have been completely avoided if more effort and money had been invested in restoring the dam at the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club--or better yet, if such a precariously placed man-made lake didn't exist at all. When precautions are thrown out the window, and engineering recommendations are blatantly ignored, nature's weather events almost always prevail, and often at a great cost to human life and livelihood. The most disgusting part? The victims of this calamity played no part in creating it.

Several of the biggest names of the late 1800's--including Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick--were members of the elite South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club. Lake Conemaugh, the gem of this secret retreat, was located behind the South Fork Dam. While these infamous folks did make several "repairs" to the South Fork dam, the majority of the effort was done simply to improve their recreational activities. Fish screens were placed at the spillway to prevent their future catches from swimming downstream. Critical discharge pipes that were removed by the previous owner were not reinstalled, rendering the lake impossible to drain for repairs or during flood events. The dam itself was lowered and flattened for the ease of transportation to the club. All of these factors, in addition to a freak weather event, combined to create one of the worst disasters of the time.

How did those who caused this horrendous event initially respond? The most generous of them recommending donating 1000 blankets to the victims. The least sympathetic denied that the dam ever failed. Despite some years of claims and litigation, the club and its members were never found to be liable for monetary damages.

This being said, there was also triumph in the midst of tragedy. People throughout the world poured donations into the devastated valley, help arrived in droves, and train cars brimming with invaluable goods made the arduous trek into the region. The city rebuilt, and the survivors overcame an incredible ordeal.

The Johnstown Flood offers a powerful and timeless historical lesson to all of the people who read the story and perhaps even visit the site today: there is danger in "assuming that because people are in positions of responsibility [that] they are necessarily behaving responsibly."

"Many thousand human lives–
Butchered husbands, slaughtered wives,
Mangled daughters, bleeding sons,
Hosts of martyred little ones,
(Worse than Herod’s awful crime)
Sent to Heaven before their time;
Lovers burnt and sweethearts drowned,
Darlings lost but never found!
All the horrors that hell could wish,
Such was the price that was paid– for fish!"
--Issac Reed(less)

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Jan 02, 2012 J rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

The people of Johnstown, Pennsylvania talked about the possibility of the dam above their town breaking for years, but it was easy to discount the thing that never happened. Until the storm of the century dumped record levels of rain, and the earthen dam gave way just after Memorial Day, 1889. The resulting devastation and loss of life was historic, and McCullough meticulously chronicles the entire event. From the wealthy club owners who didn't properly maintain the dam but who were never held r...more

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Jul 11, 2011 Karen Bowen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Growing up in central Pennsylvania, I frequently heard of the Johnstown Flood, but not until I read this historical account did I understand the event, its significance, and the social history of the tragic flood-related events in 1889. My hometown of Altoona is mentioned often, and Pennsylvania place names familiar from my childhood gave this read much personal interest. Discussions of the Pennsylvania Railroad were of special interest because the Altoona of my childhood was first and foremost...more

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Feb 05, 2010 Lucky rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is the fourth book I've read by this author, and I've enjoyed them all. The particular book was fascinating, especially in light of the recent disaster in Haiti and even Katrina (which was really similar in a lot of ways). Basically, there was this billionaires' boy's club that dammed a river at that top of the mountain for fishing and sailing, and though they were some of the wealthiest people in the world ( Carnegie, Rockefeller,etc...), the dam was poorly and cheaply constructed. So one...more

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Dec 21, 2009 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction-history

David McCullough is the master of dramatic history story-telling, and this book is no exception. I have read -- and loved -- The Path Between the Seas (about the building of the Panama Canal), but I was unaware of this one until I happened on a grouping of his books recently.

I've always had a morbid fascination for this kind of story, and certainly the Johnstown Flood was still evoking whispers of horror when I was a child in the 1950s -- still does, I guess. Having lived through and witnessed...more

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Oct 13, 2009 Ginnie rated it 5 of 5 stars

In reading the first fifty pages or so of this book, I thought I found the McCullough weak link. Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong.

The book started slow, for me, but in retrospect it put me into the mindset of the people in the area of Johnstown: taking normal days and events and thinking they were uneventful. And then the author started to build the flood and unleashed it. Wow! My heart was pounding as I turned the pages (not fast enough) to follow the sequence of disaster and tragedy.

Quite...more

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Mar 13, 2013 Shawn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: biographies-memoirs-autobio-us

Very good book on an important event in the history of the US that many do not know of. According the the Johnstown Flood Museum the Johnstown flood of 1889 is said to be the worse dam disaster in US history and before September 11th it held the record for the greatest number of civilian deaths in a single day.

http://www.jaha.org/edu/flood/backgro...

The book really captured my attention and I ended up staying up late into the night to finish it. The author did a wonderful job recreating the sto...more

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Dec 15, 2012 Owen rated it 4 of 5 stars

I struggled with rating this one. I'd call it a low four.

The Johnstown Flood was a singularly incredible disaster largely forgotten by most of the world. Johnstown may never have threatened to be an international powerhouse, but it could have been a smaller Pittsburgh, presumably with all the same future problems. Alas, the expenditures of plutocrats doomed the town to utter desolation. The scale of this boggles the mind, and McCullough is just the man deliver it to us.

McCullough, as always, doe...more

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Jun 09, 2008 Erin rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was an interesting historical read, especially because I have family in Johnstown and went to the flood museum as a child.

What I really find fascinating is how few of the general public know about the flood today. Reading this book informed me that the flood was not just national but was *international* news. Aide came in from France, Turkey, England, you name it and scale of the disaster was on par with Hurricane Katrina. How did it get so lost in our history?

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Mar 25, 2011 Christy rated it 4 of 5 stars

After watching all the Japanese tsunami videos on Youtube, I remembered this gripping book about the Johnstown Flood of 1889, which described the great wave as a mass of rubble, rolling over on itself. After what I’d seen in the videos, it was easier to picture it covering the countryside, swallowing houses, trees, trains, and people. The book was just as good the second time through! Like most of McCullough’s books, it starts out with a wealth of boring detail, but once the dam gives way and th...more

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May 20, 2008 Garrett rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

McCullough tells a wonderful story. He is able to capture the time and place and people beautifully. Then he lets the events unfold, generally focusing on the experiences of individuals rather than presenting everything with an omniscient historian's eye. As the dam breaks, he gets across the excitement and the horror, and later the courage and hope of the people. As much as I enjoy history, I liked this one even more for just being a great, well-written story.

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Jul 30, 2012 Heather rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult, adult-non-fiction, drama, historical, audiobooks

In 1889 people were preparing for the dawn of a new century. In Johnstown, Pennsylvania, this was especially evident. The railroad and steel mills had brought industry and wealth into the valley and most of the citizens agreed that it was a good thing. But the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club, well, those rich folk who built a resort at the top of the valley were another thing altogether. No one had a good thing to say about them. And what they’d done to that damn! They’d lowered it to build...more In 1889 people were preparing for the dawn of a new century. In Johnstown, Pennsylvania, this was especially evident. The railroad and steel mills had brought industry and wealth into the valley and most of the citizens agreed that it was a good thing. But the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club, well, those rich folk who built a resort at the top of the valley were another thing altogether. No one had a good thing to say about them. And what they’d done to that damn! They’d lowered it to build a road over the top, filled it up to the brim, and put up fish guards so their precious stock wouldn’t get away - then chased off all the locals who'd fished there for generations. All so they could have a huge lake all to themselves – just for pleasure and relaxation! Whoever heard of such a thing? A few townsfolk worried over the damn itself, and what might happen if it collapsed under the pressure. Most, however, thought that sort of a disaster was farfetched, more of a bogeyman tale to scare their children with.
Well, on May 31, 1889, during a storm the likes of which the valley had rarely seen, the damn above Johnstown did give way, sending tons of water crashing down onto the unsuspecting people below. Though the prospect of the damn breaking had been ever-present, no one was prepared, and over 2,000 were killed as the water swept away homes, railway cars, bridges, and entire towns, pushing the debris before it in a wave of death. McCullough explores the history of Johnstown, the damn, and the flood through the people who lived and died there. What could have been a very dry account is instead a riveting drama and social commentary – due greatly to Edward Hermann’s incredible narration, which catapulted me into the heart of 19th Century America.
My husband and I enjoyed this audiobook on a road trip, and each time we stopped the car we had to readjust our brains. We became so immersed in rainy 1889 Johnstown that it threw us off to step into the brilliant sunshine of a Wendy’s parking lot. And I became unduly concerned when we were traveling the Blue Ridge Parkway in the rain and we listened to the damn give way and the water start it’s thunderous path down the mountain. I highly recommend this audiobook to fans of Ken Burns, biography, drama, social commentary, and historical fiction.(less)

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Dec 07, 2012 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is like a documentary of the Johnstown flood; David McCullough is such a marvelous writer. Johnstown, Pennsylvania was a thriving small city (approx. pop: 10,000+), at the base of a valley in which two streams flowed. The local ironworks/steel company employed most men. It's the industrial revolution era. It's May 31, 1889. 3:00 pm in the afternoon, everyone going about their lives.

Background: About 100 very wealthy elite (Andrew Carnegie; Frick, etc.) from Pittsburgh bought the land u...more This book is like a documentary of the Johnstown flood; David McCullough is such a marvelous writer. Johnstown, Pennsylvania was a thriving small city (approx. pop: 10,000+), at the base of a valley in which two streams flowed. The local ironworks/steel company employed most men. It's the industrial revolution era. It's May 31, 1889. 3:00 pm in the afternoon, everyone going about their lives.

Background: About 100 very wealthy elite (Andrew Carnegie; Frick, etc.) from Pittsburgh bought the land up above the town to create a private summer resort in the name of their club called the South Fork Fishing & Hunting Club. A huge clubhouse/guest house and separate private cabins. There was an old dam in disrepair. The previous owner had removed the drainage pipes which would allow a runoff in case of emergency, if needed. The Fishing & Hunting Club made repairs to the dam with no help from any engineers; it was basically an earth dam. They also did not replace the pipes that go at the bottom of the dam for run-off. Then they filled it up with water and stocked it with fish.

It rained and rained, worst storm in anyone's memory. The water reached the top of the dam, and no way to release any water to ease the pressure on the dam. The result was the failure of the dam, a 30+ foot wall of water/rubble/bridges/buildings/houses/corpses thundering down the valley toward Johnstown. At some points the wall of water was over 60 feet tall.

The tragic stories of survivors are heartbreaking ... 123 years later. Some complete families were drowned. People stranded in railroad cars because the tracks were out were sitting ducks as the wall of water hit the town. So many stories. Fascinating book and so sad.

I was very curious to find out what happened to the members of the South Fork Fishing & Hunting Club -- were they ever held responsible for the death and destruction caused by their dam? Short answer: No. Not one lawsuit was successful, none of them paid anything.

The Johnstown Flood was the 19th century's 9/11. A man-made tragedy. Over 2,000 people killed.

Those who you think are responsible and will act responsibly ... well, don't count on it. (less)

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Dec 26, 2010 Serena_v rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Fantastic audio book, I thoroughly enjoyed this, finishing in two long sessions. I borrowed from the library, a copy pre-loaded onto an Otis mp3 player; reacquainting myself with exactly how much I despise books pre-loaded onto an Otis player. The already difficult navigation through the player was made worse by the way the book was divided into sections; each of the nine or ten sections began again with its own chapter one, then chapter two. It was a pain, but I was able to finally get everythi...more

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Jul 13, 2011 Megan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, books-i-own

Yet another enjoyable read by David McCullough. The topic was one that I was interested in for a variety of reasons. First, I'm from Central PA, so the Johnstown Flood has some local interest. Second, I have always been interested in natural disasters (I have no idea why), and I wanted to see how someone handled writing about them on a more scholarly level. Many books about disasters (For example, Dan Kurzman's "Disaster!" about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake) just aren't at the right level....more

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Sep 01, 2010 Jade Cress rated it 5 of 5 stars

so I am now a David McCullough fan. If my school history classes and history books had been as well-written and vivid as this, maybe I would have actually taken the AP US History test in high school.

The Johnstown Flood describes the events leading up to and following that fateful Memorial day weekend in 1889 when Johnstown, PA and several communities around it were wiped out in one afternoon by a raging wall of water caused by the breaking of a flawed dam. McCullough brings life to this event as...more

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Oct 29, 2012 James Peavler rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

Wow, talk about a depressing read -- and just in time for Hurricane Sandy.

This was David McCullough's first book, about a little remembered disaster that occurred in the Allegheny Mountains east of Pittsburgh. An earthen dam, built as part of a railroad project to compete with the opening of the Erie Canal, is left without anyone to maintain it for years. When a bunch of rich Pittsburgh industrialists get together and decide that the lake formed by the dam would be the perfect setting for a sum...more

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Jun 26, 2011 A.J. Howard rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: finished-in-2011, history

On May 31, 1889, the city of Johnstown, Pennsylvania was all but obliterated by one of the most devastating floods in American history. There were over 2,000 fatalities. Just over one in every people who lived in the city or the surrounding area died. At the time, it was the worst natural disaster in American history, but the circumstances surrounding the disaster illuminate the particular nature of American class and culture.

I can't go any further without noting the particular situation I found...more On May 31, 1889, the city of Johnstown, Pennsylvania was all but obliterated by one of the most devastating floods in American history. There were over 2,000 fatalities. Just over one in every people who lived in the city or the surrounding area died. At the time, it was the worst natural disaster in American history, but the circumstances surrounding the disaster illuminate the particular nature of American class and culture.

I can't go any further without noting the particular situation I found myself in reading this book. I've been meaning to read this for years, and there I didn't have any conscious inclination to read this now due to the circumstances of where I live. Parts of Tuscaloosa, the town I've lived in for the past three years was completely devastated in late April. I don't have any cool stories about surviving the storms of '11, none of my friends were injured, my apartment was completely untouched. In fact, I was out of town at the time, so I wasn't prevented from watching the NBA playoffs. However, even two months after the fact, a couple of hundred yards from my house there are areas that are completely unrecognizable. I'm a Florida / Gulf Coast guy. Hurricanes are my storm of choice, I find them much more conducive to drinking. Tornadoes are a little to random for my liking. The fact that my neighborhood seemingly got by without a lost branch but within a mile there are blocks where not a house was still standing gives you a good understanding of the fragility and capriciousness of the man-made. Anyways, I'm not gonna go on and on, I just mention it because recent events added perhaps a particular resonance to this reading.

Anyways, the Johnstown Flood is, on a sociological level, a lot more interesting than most other 'natural' disasters. While the ultimate cause was a once in a century rain storm that had caused damage across the country on its path to the Atlantic the immediate cause was something more human. The flood was unleashed when a earthen dam holding back a man-made body of water broke. But this wasn't any particular dam. It was built to hold back a reservoir that would enable a nearby canal to operate in the dry months. Shortly after the dam's completion the canal, along with the need for the reservoir, was made obsolete by the rise of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The reservoir was neglected and the dam soon became somewhat decrepit.

Later, however, a group of Pittsburgh industrialists saw a hidden potential for the area, and purchased the dam and the surrounding property. They envisioned a mountain resort, away from the troubles of Pittsburgh. Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, Philander Knox, and Andrew Mellon were members of the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club. When plans were made for the resort in the 1870s the original members realized that substantial repairs were required on the dam. This was done, but in an extremely negligent and reckless manner. The contractor put in charge had no engineering experience. The original emergency spillways at the base of the dam were not replaced. Adequate measures weren't taken in repairing the dam. Also, the center of the dam dipped slightly lower than the ends, which violates one of the basic rules of dam construction. Perhaps most infamously, several screens, which easily became clogged, were inserted in the spillway to prevent the club's imported fish from escaping down the dam.

David McCullough does an excellent job of relating the circumstances of the times and the results of the particular disaster. Before this I've only read his Truman and Adams biography, and I think his skills as a writer and a historian are much more well suited for a social history such as this. He does a great job weaving both individual stories and sociological background into the narrative. He can put on his historian hat and engagingly present historical background and then seamlessly alternate to his storyteller hat and cause the reader to be swept up in an individual survival tale. His ability as a writer, along with the unique circumstances of the event, elevates this from a standard disaster tale and makes it an informative and engaging snapshot of a particular period of American history.(less)

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Mar 15, 2011 Brian Leach rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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About David McCullough

David Gaub McCullough is an American author, narrator, historian, and lecturer. He is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian award.

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, McCullough earned a degree in English literature from Yale University. His first book was The Johnstown Flood (1968); a...more

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