The Johnstown Flood
- Episode aired Nov 4, 1991
- 51m
IMDb RATING
6.8/10
129
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Exploding dam kills thousands in massive flood catastrophe in Pennsylvania in 1889.Exploding dam kills thousands in massive flood catastrophe in Pennsylvania in 1889.Exploding dam kills thousands in massive flood catastrophe in Pennsylvania in 1889.
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Did you know
- TriviaThe Johnstown Flood (1991) incorrectly cataloged on Amazon Prime as The Johnstown Flood (1926), a silent film based on the disaster.
- Quotes
[first lines]
Narrator: On the 31st day of May, 1889, more than two thousand lives were lost when the South Fork Dam collapsed. An entire lake, 20 million tons of water, crashed down the Conemaugh valley through a half dozen towns on its way to Johnstown, Pennsylvania. It wiped out nearly everything in between, but by many accounts, Johnstown suffered the most gruesome and disturbing fate of all.
- ConnectionsEdited from Flaming Frontiers (1938)
Featured review
A good documentary but not angry enough
The story of the horrible 1889 Johnstown flood is even more timely now, coming in the wake of what happened in New Orleans and the gulf states in 2005. There have been many books about the Johnstown floods (and there have been more than one---the 1889 was the worst one in terms of damage and casualties, however. The town was basically wiped out). These books discuss in great detail the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club up the river, whose members were Carnegie and Mellon and other millionaires. The members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting club were told for years that without an adequate spillway (and this documentary discusses this, to a point), the lake could reach dangerous levels. These warnings, made by engineers, were written off. Folks in Johnstown heard for years that the dam would break, and the idea took on mythical proportions....people who claimed that were "crying wolf," so to speak. The dam did give way, causing a wrath of destruction and creating a true hell on Earth at the Stone Bridge in Johnstown, when debris caught fire. These events are depicted in this documentary and will cause your jaw to drop....how can something like that happen in "a civilized world?" This documentary never discusses the outcome of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club members---just a comment about how no lawsuits were brought forth. The newspapers, many of which had shares owned by the members, were relatively easy on the members. That's not to say they were completely at fault. The citizens should have heeded the warnings. But this, like the Titanic tragedy, is a classic case of rich vs. the poor or less fortunate (and not every resident of Johnstown was poor--but compared to the Pittsburgh wealthy who were members of the club, they were). I'm surprised that Hollywood has not created a 'Titanic'-like film based on this horrible event.
helpful•10
- Katz5
- Dec 12, 2005
Details
- Runtime51 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
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