Thousands Died So These Tycoons Would Not Run Out of Fish
In late May, 1889, western Pennsylvania experienced the heaviest rainfall ever recorded there: 10 inches fell in 24 hours. As water levels in Lake Conemaugh rose ominously on May 31st, the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club’s manager led laborers in a frantic attempt to unclog the dam’s spillway. They failed, and efforts to dig a new spillway were equally fruitless. Around 2:50 that afternoon, the dam, which contained nearly four billion gallons of water, began to collapse. A wall of water forty feet high and as wide as the Mississippi River rushed downstream at speeds of forty miles per hour, and destroyed all in its path. The torrent sucked people from their homes, swept trains, and slammed massive piles of debris into bridges and buildings.
2209 people perished, including 400 children. Bodies were washed as far away as Cincinnati, 400 miles away. More than 1600 homes were demolished, and the damage exceeded $4.5 billion in 2023 dollars. It was America’s deadliest non-hurricane flood. As the shock wore off, it was replaced by anger as people’s gazes turned towards those responsible. However, the private resort’s rich owners were never held accountable. They claimed that their dam modifications made no difference because they had only lowered it by one foot, and their lawyers argued that the flood was “an act of God”. Evidence emerged in 2013 that they had actually lowered the dam by three feet, which drastically increased the risk of a breach. That came too late for the victims: they lost every case against the resort’s owners, and the tycoons walked off scot-free.
