JOHNSTOWN FLOOD

Rating:
Summary: A well-researched work that reads like a novel
Review: The 1889 Johnstown Flood, perhaps one of the most infamous disasters in American history, was vividly captured in this early work by biographer & historian David McCullough. His book is *the* definitive work on this subject.

McCullough masterfully creates a vivid picture of Johnstown in the 1880s - a booming industrial city with a teeming immigrant population. He parallels his story about the city of Johnstown with the area's reputation as a summer home for the steel magnates of nearby Pittsburgh, and how those two worlds would tragically collide on a rainy May day in 1889.

He goes into almost minute-by-minute detail about how the heavy rains ate away at the earthen dam that held back the private lake of the South Fork Fishing & Hunting Club, and the frantic efforts to save the dam, complementing engineering reports on the dam with great storytelling as the workers tried to prevent the dam from giving way.

McCollough's finest literary moment comes when the dam does give way, and the millions of gallons of water come rushing downstream towards the unsuspecting citizens of Johnstown. It almost seems as if he is bringing the reader along for the ride, yard by yard, as the water rushes down the valley and picks up virtually everthing in is path -- railroad cars and locomotives, trees, fences, livestock, homes, etc. Again, he goes into incredible detail as the torrent of water moves downstream, and he paces this tale like a well-written suspense novel. McCullough's descriptive style made it easy for me to picture the carnage and chaos in my head before the flood hit Johnstown, and this was my favorite part of the book.

When the flood finally reached the city, it sloshed back and forth against a RR bridge and the nearby hills like a kid playing in a bathtub, killing some 2,000 people and virtually levelling the entire city. The author's details again shine through as he describes the suprisingly well-orchestrated attempts by the city fathers and others to help the living and the dead and get the city back on its feet.

Even if you do not regularly read historical works of nonfiction, McCullough's book is fast paced and does an excellent job of holding the reader's attention. He also does not weight the book down by sidetracking the story with minutiae, but uses fine details when they are needed. This work not only gives a exhaustive account of a famous American disaster, but is a colorful window into industrial-era America.

Rating:
Summary: I felt like I was there...
Review: The book is a must read. The author really gets to the fine details of the Great Johnstown Flood of 1889. The book covers everything one would want and need to know about the disaster.

Two Thumbs up! Way Up!

Rating:
Summary: Harrowing, Unforgettable Account of the Price of Neglect
Review: The flood that destroyed Johnstown, PA was felt as far downstream as Pittsburgh. The flood (and ensuing fire in the rubble of the town) claimed 2,000 lives, and wiped a town from the face of the earth.

It didn't have to be that way. Deferred maintenance on the dam whose failure spelt doom for Johnstown was, according to McCullough, the deciding factor in the collapse. The storm, which finally put the dam down, was merely the inevitable stimulus; the breeze against a house of cards. McCullough, without hysterical blame-placing--indeed, almost tacitly--places responsibility gently, but no less convincingly, on the appropriate shoulders, and, in doing so, makes a powerful statement about 19th-century class structures

Couple the social commentary with a hair-raising narrative style (the train racing with the wave-front, whistle tied open, still sticks in my mind, many months after reading), and McCullough produces top-notch, exquisitely researched, gripping (though perhaps a bit thin), popular history.

I heartily recommend _The Johnstown Flood_.

Rating:
Summary: Spendid, moving, tragic history
Review: The Johnstown flood symbolizes the sweeping hand of an elite, distant class of people with little regard for those "beneath them". To create a sense of country life in the Pennsylvania mountains, a few very wealthy people played with Mother Nature, building a cheap damn to form a lovely lake. But the lake proved to be more powerful than the dam, and tragedy poured out. Country lifestyles of the rich and famous came tumbling down a narrow gorge, nearly wiped Johnstown off the map, and forever changed the way Americans looked at dams.

Any school child or any adult who believes that history is boring or absent color simply needs to read this fine book, not only to enjoy a good story but also to learn how charmed lives, misplaced hope, ill-managed technology and simple human error can combine to make tragedy.

If this were fiction, you'd marvel at how he made it up. But it's real, and all the more marvelous in the telling and in the detail.

Rating:
Summary: Spendid, moving, tragic history
Review: The Johnstown flood symbolizes the sweeping hand of an elite, distant class of people with little regard for those "beneath them". To create a sense of country life in the Pennsylvania mountains, a few very wealthy people played with Mother Nature, building a cheap damn to form a lovely lake. But the lake proved to be more powerful than the dam, and tragedy poured out. Country lifestyles of the rich and famous came tumbling down a narrow gorge, nearly wiped Johnstown off the map, and forever changed the way Americans looked at dams.

Any school child or any adult who believes that history is boring or absent color simply needs to read this fine book, not only to enjoy a good story but also to learn how charmed lives, misplaced hope, ill-managed technology and simple human error can combine to make tragedy.

If this were fiction, you'd marvel at how he made it up. But it's real, and all the more marvelous in the telling and in the detail.

Rating:
Summary: Not sure what to think
Review: The Johnstown Flood was a very well-written novel, but I felt that some parts dragged. McCullough definitely did weave a nice story but parts could have been left out. It was very hard for me to get through the first 100 or so pages.

Rating:
Summary: As entertaining as it is informative
Review: There are very few nonfiction books that I read from cover to cover. This book was certainly an exception. I was engrossed in the personal stories of each of the people McCullough focuses on. He wrote this book as if he experienced this first hand and lived in Johnstown at the time. It inspired me to plan a vacation around Johnstown. After reading this informative book, I was very knowledgeable of what transpired on that fateful day in 1889. It was a very emotional experience to visit the site of the dam, the remains of which have hardly been touched since then. After reading The Johnstown Flood, I quickly bought other books by McCullough including, Brave Companions, The Path Between the Seas, and the Great Bridge. His unique style of writing nonfiction truly reads like a fictional novel. I highly recommend this book and his others to anyone interested in Americana.

Rating:
Summary: A fine, readable history
Review: There's little I can add to others' praise for this fine book. McCullough is a great writer now, and he was a great writer in 1968 when he was only in his mid-thirties. Perhaps if McCullough were redoing the book today, he would cite his sources and reduce the number of characters who are introduced at the beginning and then only brought back at the end when the reader has forgotten who they are. Otherwise, Johnstown Flood is a model of grace, clarity and style. Effortless reads like this book require the hand of a master craftsman, and McCullough is such a one.

Rating:
Summary: AWESOME
Review: This book places you in the middle of the flood. You see what the witness and victims saw and feel what they felt. Nearly impossible to put down. A wonderful account of a tragic day.

Rating:
Summary: Timbering on Hills Creates a Flood
Review: This book tells about the famous Johnstown Flood on Friday, May 31, 1889 that killed over 2209 people who lived downstream from a poorly maintained dam that gave way after heavy rainfall. Those who died of exposure, injuries, or typhoid after the first day were not counted.

The arrival of the canal around 1820s made Johnstown the busiest place in Cambria county. In the 1850s the Pennsylvania Railroad came through, the Cambria Iron Company began, and the population increased. There were about 30,000 people in the area before the flood. Life was simple, pleasures few. On Sunday people would go walking out to neighboring boroughs. There were 123 saloons in the greater Johnstown area, as in other steel towns.

The Western Reservoir was built in the 1840s, but became generally known as the South Fork dam. It was to supply extra water for the Main Line canal from Johnstown to Pittsburgh. By saving the spring floods, water could be released during the dry summers. The Portage Railroad lifted the canal boats over the Alleghany Mountain to the canal to Philadelphia.

The dam was built on successive layers of "puddled" clay. The outer wall was riprapped with loose rocks, the inner face with stones. Five cast iron pipes two feet in diameter, set in a stone culvert, released the water to flow to the South Fork and the Little Conemaugh to Johnstown. Earth dams were used for thousands of years; they work as long as no water spills over the top, or no internal seepage develops.

When the dam was completed in 1852, the Pennsylvania Railroad completed the track from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and the canal business began its decline. The state offered to sell the canal, the Penna RR bought it for the right of ways. The neglected dam broke for the first time in 1862. The repair work
was done by unqualified people; the discharge pipes were blocked up! Rains in 1879 and 1881 caused damage.

Floods were a recurring problem in Johnstown during the 19th century. A growing population needed space, trees disappeared from the hills and mountains, the river channels were narrowed for more buildings and bridges. The forests retain enormous amounts of water in the soil (800 tons per acre), the soil itself, and snow. Spring thaws and summer thunderstorms would
send torrents down the hills; flooding became worse each year (p.65-66). But people believed that a dam break would not cause much trouble.

In 1880 the manager of the Cambria Iron Works (a competitor of Carnegie) had the dam inspected. Two problems were found: there was no discharge pipe to reduce water in the dam, and, the previous repair left a leak that cut into the dam. This advice was rejected, even after their offer to pay for repairs. The Cambria Iron Works was bigger than any in Pittsburgh before the Civil War (p.61).

There were four other changes to the dam that were crucial. The height of the dam was lowered, reducing the height between the crest and the spillway. A screen of iron rods were put across the spillway, which would decrease the its capacity when clogged by debris. The dam sagged in the center so it was lower than at
the ends; the center should have been highest and strongest. Lastly, the club brought the level of the lake nearly to the top; there was no reserve capacity for a severe storm.

On the morning of May 31, 1889 flooding began after heavy rains; it seemed to be worse than the 1887 flood. A man was sent to South Fork to warn the people that the dam might give way, and to telegraph a warning to Johnstown. It was not heeded - they heard
that before! Three warnings were telegraphed down the valley. By 12:30PM a 50 to 60 foot wide sheet of water started to flow over the dam. By 2PM the waters had cut a notch in the center of the dam. The dam seemed to push out all at once, not break, at 3:10PM (p.100). It took about 40 minutes for the lake to empty, with the force of Niagara at the Falls, flowing at about 40 MPH (p.102). The rest of the book tells of the flood and the investigations.

The picture of Andrew Carnegie makes me wonder if he had been used as the model for "Santa Claus". Building and paving hills and mountains will increase the flood risk, then or now.