The other day, I was asked by somebody if the recent flooding in Texas was the largest death toll in the United States due to a flood. I told them I didn’t know what the largest one was, but I did know the Johnstown flood killed over 2,200. They said, “What are you talking about, and where is Johnstown?”
I said, “Western Pennsylvania, and how can you not be familiar with the Johnstown flood?”
I then set about asking others, “Have you ever heard of the Johnstown flood?”
Everybody I asked said they hadn’t, most asking me where Johnstown was. To each of them, I wonder how they had never heard of it. Finishing with at least you know about a Johnny Cash or Bruce Springsteen song about it, right?
Even my pop culture reference didn’t help.
I asked over 30 people. People who grew up in the same house I did. My wife, my children, my neighbors, over 20 of my coworkers, and even my friends on the golf course.
According to the Johnstown Flood National Memorial:
The Johnstown Flood, sometimes referred to locally as the Great Flood of 1889, occurred on Friday, May 31, 1889, after the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam, located on the south fork of the Little Conemaugh River, 14 miles (23 km) upstream of the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, United States. The dam ruptured after several days of extremely heavy rainfall, releasing 14.55 million cubic meters of water.[3] With a volumetric flow rate that temporarily equaled the average flow rate of the Mississippi River,[4] the flood killed 2,208 people[5] and accounted for US$17,000,000 (equivalent to about $590,000,000 in 2024) in damage.
I was also quick to point out to my uninformed contacts that the story is dramatic beyond just the loss of life. It is a story of haves versus have-nots. The lake that was a product of the dam was a haven for the wealthy, and nearly all of the victims were residents of the poorer downriver communities.
It includes unbelievable stories of intrigue. The death toll was reduced 11 years after the flood when Leroy Temple, who was presumed to have died, returned to town very much alive. According to records compiled by the Johnstown Area Heritage Association, bodies were found as far away as Cincinnati, Ohio, and as late as 1911; 99 entire families died in the flood, including 396 children; 124 women and 198 men were widowed; 98 children were orphaned; and one third of the dead, 777 people, never were identified; their remains were buried at Johnstown’s Grandview Cemetery.
I am also amazed when we all think things are common knowledge and they aren’t. Or when we all think what we are going through is unprecedented.
The Titanic had 2,224 passengers, and estimates vary on how many died. Most put it in the range of 1,500. Everybody has heard of the Titanic, despite its relatively minor impact on the world—indeed, a smaller impact than the Johnstown flood.
If you look into the history of the flood, you will see it had a significant impact on how we build dams and our legal system. As Jed Handelsman Shugerman wrote in his book “The Floodgates of Strict Liability.”
As a result of this criticism, in the 1890s, state courts around the country adopted Rylands v. Fletcher, a British common law precedent which had formerly been largely ignored in the United States. State courts’ adoption of Rylands, which held that a non-negligent defendant could be held liable for damage caused by the unnatural use of land, foreshadowed the legal system’s 20th-century acceptance of strict liability.[31]
But still, most people have no idea about a flood that killed 2,208 people and changed most of our business transactions. Yikes.
Let’s continue to pray for the people in Texas and hope we find more survivors. Let’s hope we improve our warning systems and learn from this current flood, so people are more likely to survive future floods.
Let’s also remember we don’t have it the worst, and it is possible our times aren’t as unique as we think they are.
World-famous author David McCullough wrote a book on the subject (which I bought this week and plan to lend to everyone I know). Too bad James Cameron hasn’t made a movie about it.
(A final note is that the worst natural disaster in terms of fatalities is the Galveston Hurricane in 1900, before we named hurricanes. Estimates are that approximately 8,000 people died in this single event. But I’m sure you already knew that.)
