liquidnight:

Undertakers Oversee Unloading of Coffin Train, Johnstown Flood

Johnstown, Pennsylvania, June 1889, Silver Gelatin Print

On May 31, 1889, a rich man’s resort was responsible for bringing about one of the most infamous disasters in American history. The dam for Lake Conemaugh, a private fishing lake, burst flooding Pennsylvania’s Conemaugh Valley, decimating Johnstown. Over 2,200 people died, thousands were injured, and hundreds were missing. Fourteen miles up from the town, the small lake had been expanded to a length of three miles and was contained by an earthen dam 450 feet higher in elevation than Johnstown. The project had been the brainchild of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, whose members were wealthy Pittsburgh steel and coal executives. Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon were among the club’s members. Warnings of the poor condition of the dam went unheeded. The dam broke, releasing over 20 million tons of water and debris, which traveled up to 40 miles an hour, creating a wave as high as 60 feet. It hit the town at about 4:10 PM. In ten minutes it was over. However the suffering for the company town of some 30,000 German and Welsh steelworkers was far from finished. Thousands were trapped, and houses and debris caught fire, killing eighty who had survived the flood. The cleanup took years. Bodies were still being discovered up to a decade later. Despite the shoddy condition and poor upkeep of the dam, no successful lawsuits were ever brought. Johnstown eventually rebuilt. On August 31, 1964, The Johnstown Flood National Memorial was established at the remains of the Old South Fork Dam and former lakebed. This photograph is from a series of images of the disaster. Photographs of piles of coffins were popular because they represented the numbers of dead.

From Sleeping Beauty II - Grief, Bereavement and the Family in Memorial Photography by Stanley B. Burns, M.D.

My family is from this area. My grandma has pictures of a huge tree that had been carried by the water and crashed through a barn. Not anywhere near the ground- the tree was stuck about two stories up. Crazy.