Found this channel recently and have been binging over the last week. Very well put together, accurate, and informative vids! I would suggest maybe in the future covering the Sverdlovsk anthrax leak in 1979. It seems pretty appropriate for this channel. Keep up the great content. 😸
Holy shit thank you! Ive been asking you and another channel to do a video on this! The johnstown flood is hardly ever talked about and it was one of the worst disasters in U.S. history. This holds a special place in my heart as I am currently a resident of Johnstown, PA. I drive under the stone bridge that stopped the flood every single day on the way to work.
The fact that barbed wire was tangled in the rubble sounds simply horrifying. Imagine trying to recover a body mangled by being tossed around in a torrent of wood splinters and barbed wire.
Imagine being one of those people who are alive after the initial torrent, but you've been beaten and torn up by all kinds of debris AND barbed wire. That's a new kind of hurt right there, literally since barbed wire was still fairly new back then.
he forgot to mention that the pile also caught fire while they where trying to get to people, I work in the town from time to time and every business down there has pictures taken from the area before and after. Its crazy even the small towns of South Fork and Wilmore still have signs to the water destruction.
Imagine the utter horror of being one of the rescue workers trying to reach someone who needs your help... and you can't, because every chunk of rubble or shovel full of mud is full of barbed wire. Able to see the victim, but not even able to reach out a hand to comfort them without getting shredded.
I was 12 when I had my first summer job... farm hand... and there was a spirited (read "high strung") young colt new to the farm at the time... Late that summer the colt got tangled in the barbed wire fence... and I was out doing rounds (repairing fence and setting salt licks) with one of the older hands... The colt was freaking right out, and everything we tried to do just seemed to make everything worse... There was so much blood, and it was screaming and thrashing... kicked the sh*t out of both of us, but me because I wouldn't leave the little feller... I couldn't just leave him like that... ...and then the shot... It was quick... clean... a .22 right behind the ear... only an entry... and almost immediately the legs tensed and then went slack... and we both fell over... It took me almost a minute to realize what had happened. Sometimes it just hurts too bad to be able to sit still and just let someone help... AND then the more anyone tries to help the worse it seems to get... making you jump and recoil or thrash and kick more... and... "the vicious cycle"... and around and around it goes... ...until someone PUTS an end to it. GOD I hope I'm wrong about some of that, but I know (somehow) I'm probably not... and I don't know what hurts worse. ;o)
I was driving through Johnstown years ago and on the phone with my cousin Jersey and it was pouring down rain. Cousin asks where I am and I told him. He exclaimed “ don’t go through there! Remember the flood!” Thanks cuz, because I needed that reminder when driving through a storm
I live about 30 miles from Johnstown. Naturally I learned about this in school. But I found out a few things they didn't tell us about. Very informative. Keep up the good work
Me too. Indiana. I'm in Pittsburgh now but I still remember the last time I went to Johnstown. Man... It's in bad shape. I really hope it finds a way out of the poverty it's in
This is wild. I remember reading a Walt Disney comic book years ago where Duckburg had a dam breach in almost the exact same manner- Rich fishing club owned the dam and didnt bother maintaining it, Woodchucks try to save the dam by getting the netting out of the way which fails and then try to warn the city, which fails, leading to a massive flood. As a german native i had no idea that this actually happened, and i thought this was just a story someone made up.
@@gwhizz5878 Disney robs the public domain of intellectual property, and then works to extend copyright laws to prevent new works for entering public domain.
@@gwhizz5878 Get over yourself. Most great stories started as real life events in some shape or form. If it were that easy, everyone would be doing it. Walt would be dethawing if he could see what the woke mob is doing to his life's work.
The house I live in survived the Great Johnstown Flood. It was originally servants' quarters for a grand house that was subsequently torn down, but probably not due to flood damage. The Moxham area of Johnstown, where I live, was just hit by water that backed up when the flood hit the Stone Bridge. A sharp bend in the Stony Creek, a tributary of the Conemaugh River, absorbed the impact of the flood, so this section of Moxham got a lot of water but not a lot of debris or water pressure. After the flood, the city required that all attics have escape hatches due to the number of people who fled upstairs and were trapped in their attics. When I replaced my roof I found the frame of the escape hatch, which clearly had not been original construction and thus confirmed the pre-flood age of the house.
Absolutely top notch comment, thanks for the added info. Very cool to not only live in a pre-flood house, but to confirm that fact by finding the evidence of the attic escape hatch. Thanks for sharing!
The Stonycreek is not a tributary. The Stony and Little Conemaugh form the Conemaugh at their confluence, just like the Allegheny and the Monongahela form the Ohio.
i’m a johnstown native and we actually nearly flooded again this past september! a small dam in wilmore nearly failed and could’ve caused massive damage. they actually sent schools home early that day and evacuated areas downstream. luckily it managed to stay in tact and only had moderate flooding in wilmore.
Yea nothing like the fire dept coming around and telling everyone to evacuate... for a few minutes we seriously thought we were going to have the 4th Johnstown flood
My family and I visited Johnstown while we were on vacation some years ago, specifically the Johnstown Flood Museum. they had a few interesting exhibits, but the main centerpiece was this huge, interactive 3D diorama of Johnstown and the path of the flood. By pressing a button, lights beneath the diorama would illuminate different parts of the map to illustrate the flood and its path of destruction, accompanied by sound effects of rushing water, smashing timbers, and screaming people. One detail I remember most was this string of red LED lights representing a train that tried and failed to outrun the flood while blasting its whistle to warn others of the incoming waters- you could hear the train whistle blowing as the lights ticked down the path before they were swallowed up by the encroaching blue light, and the whistle went silent in an instant. It was a simple setup but very effective at showing the scope of the flood and its deadly power.
Good to see this one! It's one of those disasters that people from Pennsylvania still talk about to this day. Another good one is the Bruin Pennsylvania Superfund site where 4 petrochemical companies dumped petroleum byproducts in a sinkhole for decades until it destroyed the water table to the point where the EPA forced these companies to create municipal water sources for 5 towns nearby.
The water tables across America are at crisis point if the wild fires and constant industrial and domestic pollution persists new solutions and sources may need be acquired from the North Canada take note.
@@PapaTanGh0stNI9htM4R3S0nMaInSt "MAY"??? Where the f*** is anyone going to get water when everything within a mile of the surface is toxic, radioactive, or so full of bacteria, it's going to rot your guts out as fast as it quenches any thirst??? "May"... he says, like there's an option... Maybe folks will just learn to drink piss... Maybe we'll discover a new species of human that doesn't actually need water... ain't 70% liquid... Maybe we'll start life anew with a silicon basis instead of carbon... and be able to regenerate our health by chewing broken glass, too. "May".... hahahahahahahaha.... ;o)
@@PapaTanGh0stNI9htM4R3S0nMaInSt The operative term is "WILL" need be sourced or discovered... blah-blah-blah... There is nothing "may" about it... (lolz) ;o)
I would love to see a video on the barely known about Church Rock uranium mill spill in New Mexico in 1979. The accident remains the largest release of radioactive material in U.S. history, having released more radioactivity than the Three Mile Island accident four months earlier... But it's barely known because it happened on the reservation.
@@markshort9098 Not just hydrogen. A small amount of Xenon and Iodine gas was released, but the amounts were so small it didn't even reach the insignificant stage.
Just re-watched this a second time. You really did it justice, John. Anyone who was born and raised near Johnstown, PA, USA knows the story, but I’m always surprised by how few people had ever heard of it before.
My family lived in the Johnstown area during the flood in 1889. A relative, an uncle or cousin, was a victim of the flood. He contracted typhoid and died. I’ve been up to the dam remnants several times. They have a visitor’s center close by where they tell the story of the flood. I have also been to the Grandview Cemetery where many flood victims are buried. There is a monument with many gravestones. I still go to Johnstown regularly to visit family. The city is decaying though… It’s been like that for many years now
I live in Johnstown , its in a lot of advertisements that "the flood is over" as a way to try to get people to come back to the city. If you go in town they do have a measurement on how high the flood was for both of the floods on a few buildings and a things like Morley's dog between Main and vine street. most in the area know about it pretty early as the Flood museum being a normal elementary school field trip for children or just older relatives who feel like they want to talk about it. My father told me about both of them when i was little since he was a rescue fire fighter for the 77' flood and he refuses to go swimming at all even in a pool due to it. (which is understandable trauma)
It was just shocking to me how the "redesign" used absolutely everything you probably shouldn't put into a dam with more than an acre's worth of water behind it. :shakes head:
I've been waiting FOREVER for one of my favorite disaster channels to cover this flood! I remember learning about it so much growing up. We had to read a new book about the flood each year, and we would always have field trips to the museum. It's horrendous just how this was all started by greed and pride. Thank you so much for covering this little piece of history!
As someone who lives in Johnstown PA, our city comes off as very unknown which I see why the city is very bland at this point and doesn't have a stable population. however, there's a lot of history here with the three floods each one has a very devastating story. Thank you for covering this :)
Fantastic video as always. I surprisingly never heard of this one. If I could suggest a video idea it'd be the West Valley Demonstration project. Used to be owned by the Getty oil co. From the 50s to the 70s. They were the only nuclear fuel reprocessing plants in the country. They'd dump nuclear fuel in the ground as well which seeped into the water table.
How am I today years old...and just now finding out about this. I used to live 3 miles from the WVDP and still live only about 40 miles south of it. But, never has it been discussed that the West Valley Demonstration Project Act of 1980 was signed into law to remediate this facility just 24 days before my birth...............locally there was no discussions about it, when I lived there it was just accepted the Federal Government owned the facility...but no one seems to know about this law or why the Feds own the property.
@@natpaul3777 that's interesting. WVFD's logo also has an atom on it as well lol. Story time. They had box cars loaded with contaminated soil and had to get it out of there. So one night, they took them all out without telling anyone (not even the local fire departments) needless to say folks weren't too happy. They do sketchy stuff like that every now and then. They still let people hunt the property every so often to curb the deer population.
I grew up in Johnstown. This history is pretty well drilled into us.... lots of field trips to the museums, and southfork dam location. You can still drive under The Stone Bridge. Trains still use it. A few years back the Stone Bridge Project gave it a face lift on one side including led lights. The other side was left as is. I always get the chills driving under it... so many lives lost there in that spot. Absolutely tragic... and it was avoidable had the rich folk like Andrew Carnegie not neglected the dam's care and debris build up at the spillway. The members of the Fishing & Hunting Club we never found guilty. 2209 people died...a town completely devastated... and no one was ever held accountable.
I was wondering if the Johnstown Flood would eventually show up on this channel. I grew up in the Johnstown area, namely Mineral Point, and it's such a tragic story. So much negligence and poor choices led to such a mass loss of life. The one museum in town has a wall dedicated to all of those that died, and there were just so many families completely wiped out, including tourists and migrants that had come to the area just before the flood. One detail of absolute hell that you forgot to include was that the debris and barbed wire also caught fire at one point, so those trapped and the rescuers got to enjoy being burnt or cooked alive while also being crushed and drowned. The trio of floods completely ruined the city and it's been in a death spiral ever since, which is a shame when you see how booming it used to be. The area is quite beautiful and boasts a deep history, but it's not enough to keep the city alive
I live in Blair County, about 45min from Johnstown. I always told myself I’d visit the site when I first learned of it but I have yet to. This video has served as a reminder for me to pay a visit and I’m planning a trip with friends next weekend. Thank you and cheers :)
Grew up not far from Johnstown. You can drive through the town and find old buildings with markers on them that mark the level the flood reached. It is still talked about in the area for sure.
The whole people trapped in a flood of water, mud, wood is bad enough. The barbed wire factory takes it over the top. And then, it all catches on fire. He didn't delve into the suffering and horror as much as he could have, and that might be for the best.
I moved up here years ago from Florida, never hearing about it until then. Living about 30 miles North of Johnstown, it's hard to fond someone who didn't have a family story of the flood. It's interesting to see you cover this topic and being able to actually know where it happened. I've driven along side the river in Johnstown, so seeing that old map let me picture where much of the city was back then compared to now. Can't wait for your next video. Keep up the great work.
Evidently I got family that went missing in the more recent flood and were never found. Definitely interesting seeing this get recognition due to how remote the city is for today's standards. Used to be a big steel producer. Edit: Holy shit. You actually covered the steel city era. Thanks for mentioning the area. I recommend the physical history of the place and the Incline Plane still runs people to this day.
That would be absolutely horrifying not knowing this was coming and just hearing a rumbling coming towards your town, and then just nothing as it hits your house and tears through it
I'm an Eastern PA resident who once paid a visit to Johnstown; it was sobering to see a high-water mark on an old building that was quite far up the wall.
Fun Fact: Everyone in PA still pays an 18% "Johnstown Flood Tax" on liquor purchased in the state... Of course, now it just goes into the general fund...
General fund?! Lol, it goes to line pockets of politicians and their business friends. Some of you are so naive its dangerous and cute at the same time.
@@fire_n_ice1984 how is tax money laundered straight to politicians pockets? You don’t seem to to realize how corruption functions, just offering blind and naive assumptions, unless you have a source?
Wow... You're not kidding. "The liquor tax was made permanent in 1951, and it was increased to 15 percent in 1963 and then in 1968 it was increased to 18 percent. So anyone who purchases liquor in the state of Pennsylvania is still paying for that disaster, even though the actual disaster was paid for decades ago" Hey, if I'm paying a tax for Johnstown it should go to Johnstown! That town really could use that money!
@@jacksonbarker7594 It's overyly simplistic and cynical to suggest that it goes directly to politicians' pockets, but it's not far off from how corruption works. The most common political corruption scheme is to take kickbacks from overpriced government contracts, which might very well be paid from that general fund.
This is great! I grew up about 1.5miles away from where the dam was - You can go and walk down through the lake and they have a nice little historical trail that tells the story.
I’ve been to the Johnstown flood museum. It’s a great place with lots of artifacts from the flood and a recreation of the dam so you can see in detail how it failed. I highly recommend it to anyone who is in the area.
I'm moving to Johnstown in a bit and when I told my mom she was like "ah, where the flood was". I was born in 1986 (in NJ) and had no idea and researched it. Now UA-cam recommends me any videos on Johnstown flood lol.
hey PD, thanks for helping raise awareness about everyday risks that are matters of public trust. the next generation will have more people who understand how quickly things can go tits up thanks to content like this and that delta p vid. one love
Look into the Swedish disater where Ragundasjön was emptied. It was done by a man named Magnus Huss, in 1796 he was tasked with making a canal to float logs in but he dug it throu sand and it failed. The lake was emptied in 4 hours and it contained 1 billion kubic meters of water, that is 264 billion gallons. The wave that came from it was 25 meters high. Now there is a village at the bottom named Hammarstand. If you search for Döda Fallet you will find pictures.
The "Pennsylvanian" Amtrak Passenger train westbound from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh parallels the Conemaugh River heading into Johnstown and gives one a creepy sense of the disaster when one imagines the tons of water and debris surging down it into the City.
For those without an agricultural background straw is the dry stalk from wheat, barly or oats. Little nitrogen to make protein. Hay is dry grass. Chlorophyll contains nitrogen atoms. If hay is not dried enough, bacteria can breed so fast that the hay and barn can disappear into thin air via flames.
Cincinnati. Bodies were washed all the way to the Ohio, and down to Cincinnati. That is not a small distance to cover, especially for a corpse. That gives a sense of the scope and force of the flood. Cincinnati is a few hundred miles away from Johnstown. Holy smokes.
I live 20 mins from Johnstown, the town is a shell. Its constantly winter in that town, no nightlife, not a lot of work to find, and plenty of crime ( One of the highest crime rates in America compared to similar sized communities. The flood museum is also a reminder to why this town is so sad. We used to go watch the Chiefs play every year and I loved watching Slapshot with my Dad, Thunder In the Valley is keeping that place alive.
I hope to see somebody cover the Helicopter Accident in Derry PA 1978.. The whole town has PTSD, I worked in Derry for years and you still are not able to bring it up, people are still very much affected by what happened. Truly terrifying some of the stories I have heard.
I've been to Johnstown. I still have my t-shirt from the incline plane that says "world's slowest roller coaster the Johnstown Incline Plane" on it 🤪 🤣
My 4th great grandmother, Margaret Pratt was killed in the flood. She was 91 years old when it demolished their home and she is only listed in Biographic & Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria County, PA. "Pratt family of 2 missing, Cambria, not found." Just figured I would share a tiny piece of one of the lives lost that day.
I read about this years and years ago. I finally got to visit the site. Amazing. My Great Grandfather emigrated from Birmingham, England to Pittsburgh just three years prior to this event.
I regret to inform you that this is only the FIRST Johnstown Flood. There were others: The Second Flood of 1936 and the Third Flood of 1977. The first was, by far, the worst of the three.
I first learned about this flood when I was around ten by reading a Readers Digest condensed book story on it. That and the San Franciscan earthquake of 1906 has always fascinated me. Thank you for your illustrations.
I know that debris in any flood is deadly but there is something about the idea of barbed wire barreling toward someone in a flood that seems so much worse than any other.
There's video of the 1936 saint Patrick's day flood in Tyrone. I live outside of Tyrone near a massive steel bridge. My town is roughly 200 feet up a cliff side. The town below us Irish flats disappeared. The water hit the top of the old bridge and water in the valley was 70 feet high. Same flood that destroyed johnstown in 36 destroyed 3 towns along the little Juniata. Josephine, Ironsvill, Irish flats got completely washed away.
Hey Plainly Difficult. Hello from the JGSDF Eastern Army, 1st Division. 1st NBC-Defence Coy. Out of Camp Nerima in Nerima, Tokyo, Japan, me and a few others here love your videos, keep up the great work!
I remember the first time i had ever heard about the Johnstown disaster. It was in an older readers digest, drama in real life series. Very well done video!
Another fantastic video! After a recent trip to the site, I'd love to hear you cover the Malpasset Dam disaster. My friend's mum grew up in the nearby town of Fréjus that was destroyed by the dam collapse and took us out to where you can visit the structure remains while I was there visiting.
A family friend told us of her and her husband visiting the memorial for this disaster recently and they got so overwhelmed they had to leave a bit early. Its so awful :(
This is still a big deal in Pennsylvania, at least in that region of the state. I have friends and family from that area, and they are quick to bring it up in conversation.
It's interesting that most people in the city itself, don't know much about the history. I lived, went to college, and worked there for about ten years. They *know* there were floods. Most bring up the 77 flood. This is due to that being in recent memory for over 50% of the population
Good video and good description of the events! Pretty much person who grows up here is familiar with the history of the flood(s). Johnstown also flooded in 1936 and 1977, with the 77' flood being attributed to the failure of 3 dams in the surrounding foothills.
Frick is well known to be one of the biggest reasons why the dam failed. They used to take their carriages over the dam. Frick drove over it. It was bumpy. He told the upkeeper that he (Frick) could get a new carriage or the upkeeper could lower the top of the dam and which did he think that Frick would do. The top couple of inches were removed from the dam. Interesting thing, the stone bridge is still there and still functional. I lived and worked in Johnstown for about ten years. Everyone knows it flooded. Most people (in the city) talk about the 1977 flood. They remember it or had parents affected by it. Just around 2016, they were doing excavation work and found a motorcycle lost to the 77 flood. The original owner was still alive and living in the city
as someone from the area, I recommend the museum if you get a chance. super cool place. other than that, Johnstown is extremely dangerous and even in the best areas you dont want to even be driving at night. definitely a day trip only place.
The cemetery of Johnstown and the 700+ unnamed victims is so sad. If you ever go to PA, there is a national historic park at the dam site and town. It is worth the effort to visit.
thank you for making this. i like in johnstown and its honestly hard to see others worship Andrew Carnegie and Frick like they were good people. like wow man thanks for the library that sure makes up for 2000 dead people because of you and your buddies negligence.
I am from ebensburg Pennsylvania, roughly 13 miles from Johnstown Pennsylvania, I’ve learned of this flood at a young age and it’s very much a part of the local culture. It was actually my 8th grade felid tip to go to the dam and the museums there. My great grandfather also lived in south fork Pennsylvania in the 1880s and is said to have witnessed the flood and its aftermath. If you have any questions about the flood ask me as I am a history buff myself and being from here I have a great deal of knowledge and information on the subject.
I hope you find this weeks video informative! Any suggestions let me know 👇
It's a very informative video. My only suggestion would be to also add metric units.
great video as always :) my suggestion is the san bruno pipeline explosion in 2010, which killed 8 people. thanks!
Henry clay frick had the dam cut down to widen the road so his wider carriage could go over the road
Found this channel recently and have been binging over the last week. Very well put together, accurate, and informative vids!
I would suggest maybe in the future covering the Sverdlovsk anthrax leak in 1979. It seems pretty appropriate for this channel.
Keep up the great content. 😸
Holy shit thank you! Ive been asking you and another channel to do a video on this! The johnstown flood is hardly ever talked about and it was one of the worst disasters in U.S. history. This holds a special place in my heart as I am currently a resident of Johnstown, PA. I drive under the stone bridge that stopped the flood every single day on the way to work.
The fact that barbed wire was tangled in the rubble sounds simply horrifying. Imagine trying to recover a body mangled by being tossed around in a torrent of wood splinters and barbed wire.
Imagine being one of those people who are alive after the initial torrent, but you've been beaten and torn up by all kinds of debris AND barbed wire. That's a new kind of hurt right there, literally since barbed wire was still fairly new back then.
he forgot to mention that the pile also caught fire while they where trying to get to people, I work in the town from time to time and every business down there has pictures taken from the area before and after. Its crazy even the small towns of South Fork and Wilmore still have signs to the water destruction.
Imagine the utter horror of being one of the rescue workers trying to reach someone who needs your help... and you can't, because every chunk of rubble or shovel full of mud is full of barbed wire. Able to see the victim, but not even able to reach out a hand to comfort them without getting shredded.
... and it's all on fire.
I was 12 when I had my first summer job... farm hand... and there was a spirited (read "high strung") young colt new to the farm at the time...
Late that summer the colt got tangled in the barbed wire fence... and I was out doing rounds (repairing fence and setting salt licks) with one of the older hands... The colt was freaking right out, and everything we tried to do just seemed to make everything worse... There was so much blood, and it was screaming and thrashing... kicked the sh*t out of both of us, but me because I wouldn't leave the little feller... I couldn't just leave him like that...
...and then the shot...
It was quick... clean... a .22 right behind the ear... only an entry... and almost immediately the legs tensed and then went slack... and we both fell over... It took me almost a minute to realize what had happened.
Sometimes it just hurts too bad to be able to sit still and just let someone help... AND then the more anyone tries to help the worse it seems to get... making you jump and recoil or thrash and kick more... and...
"the vicious cycle"... and around and around it goes...
...until someone PUTS an end to it.
GOD I hope I'm wrong about some of that, but I know (somehow) I'm probably not... and I don't know what hurts worse. ;o)
I was driving through Johnstown years ago and on the phone with my cousin Jersey and it was pouring down rain. Cousin asks where I am and I told him. He exclaimed “ don’t go through there! Remember the flood!” Thanks cuz, because I needed that reminder when driving through a storm
Blood is thicker than fast moving water.
Cuz, huh??? Let me take a guess, you're cousins' from New Jersey, and let me take a wilder guess, you're from Philly, correct, 🤔 hmmm………
@@rogerrendzak8055 schizo moment
@@rogerrendzak8055 someone throw them in a loony bin
I live about 30 miles from Johnstown. Naturally I learned about this in school. But I found out a few things they didn't tell us about. Very informative. Keep up the good work
From Altoona myself...
Me too. Indiana. I'm in Pittsburgh now but I still remember the last time I went to Johnstown. Man... It's in bad shape. I really hope it finds a way out of the poverty it's in
I live fairly close to Johnstown too. I visited their flood museum about a year ago and it was very interesting.
@@shroompicn-shrooman
State College, small world haha
Harrisburg here
This is wild. I remember reading a Walt Disney comic book years ago where Duckburg had a dam breach in almost the exact same manner- Rich fishing club owned the dam and didnt bother maintaining it, Woodchucks try to save the dam by getting the netting out of the way which fails and then try to warn the city, which fails, leading to a massive flood.
As a german native i had no idea that this actually happened, and i thought this was just a story someone made up.
Thanks for sharing this. It makes me wonder what else immulates a prior event in cartoons or movies that don't make it obvious like "Titanic"
Disney's greatest stories were never imagineered by Disney. It's easier to steal greatness, isn't it Walt ??
@@gwhizz5878 Disney robs the public domain of intellectual property, and then works to extend copyright laws to prevent new works for entering public domain.
@@gwhizz5878 Get over yourself. Most great stories started as real life events in some shape or form. If it were that easy, everyone would be doing it. Walt would be dethawing if he could see what the woke mob is doing to his life's work.
@@pamike4873 Disney are the biggest woke mob around. Look at who you are defending, P(in the)A Micky. Look in the magic mirror, hypocrite.
The house I live in survived the Great Johnstown Flood. It was originally servants' quarters for a grand house that was subsequently torn down, but probably not due to flood damage. The Moxham area of Johnstown, where I live, was just hit by water that backed up when the flood hit the Stone Bridge. A sharp bend in the Stony Creek, a tributary of the Conemaugh River, absorbed the impact of the flood, so this section of Moxham got a lot of water but not a lot of debris or water pressure.
After the flood, the city required that all attics have escape hatches due to the number of people who fled upstairs and were trapped in their attics. When I replaced my roof I found the frame of the escape hatch, which clearly had not been original construction and thus confirmed the pre-flood age of the house.
Absolutely top notch comment, thanks for the added info. Very cool to not only live in a pre-flood house, but to confirm that fact by finding the evidence of the attic escape hatch. Thanks for sharing!
The Stonycreek is not a tributary. The Stony and Little Conemaugh form the Conemaugh at their confluence, just like the Allegheny and the Monongahela form the Ohio.
i’m a johnstown native and we actually nearly flooded again this past september! a small dam in wilmore nearly failed and could’ve caused massive damage. they actually sent schools home early that day and evacuated areas downstream.
luckily it managed to stay in tact and only had moderate flooding in wilmore.
Yea nothing like the fire dept coming around and telling everyone to evacuate... for a few minutes we seriously thought we were going to have the 4th Johnstown flood
Johnstown native as well.. i remember that!
My family and I visited Johnstown while we were on vacation some years ago, specifically the Johnstown Flood Museum. they had a few interesting exhibits, but the main centerpiece was this huge, interactive 3D diorama of Johnstown and the path of the flood. By pressing a button, lights beneath the diorama would illuminate different parts of the map to illustrate the flood and its path of destruction, accompanied by sound effects of rushing water, smashing timbers, and screaming people. One detail I remember most was this string of red LED lights representing a train that tried and failed to outrun the flood while blasting its whistle to warn others of the incoming waters- you could hear the train whistle blowing as the lights ticked down the path before they were swallowed up by the encroaching blue light, and the whistle went silent in an instant. It was a simple setup but very effective at showing the scope of the flood and its deadly power.
If you're repairing your dam with a mixture of hay & mud you might be doing it wrong... Great video as usual!
Yeah there's a 3 pig tale that has emphasized this for hundreds of years
Yes, even beavers use heavier structural material. I choked on my drink when he said that.
So you're saying a bit of hay and mud wont have much effect holding back 3+ billion gallons of water? But what if its got electrolytes?
@@dondajulah4168 it’s what plants crave
@@lkracker7
Brought to you by Carl's Jr.
incredible seeing a story i've grown up hearing told by a creator who's style adds so much still. thank you for covering this
Thanks for listening
@@PlainlyDifficult Great work man keep it up you absolutely deserve success and $$$.
Good to see this one! It's one of those disasters that people from Pennsylvania still talk about to this day. Another good one is the Bruin Pennsylvania Superfund site where 4 petrochemical companies dumped petroleum byproducts in a sinkhole for decades until it destroyed the water table to the point where the EPA forced these companies to create municipal water sources for 5 towns nearby.
The water tables across America are at crisis point if the wild fires and constant industrial and domestic pollution persists new solutions and sources may need be acquired from the North Canada take note.
I live in Scranton Pa, not far from where the Knox Mine Disaster, 1972 Agnes flood happened. Centralia is about an hour away as well.
@@PapaTanGh0stNI9htM4R3S0nMaInSt "MAY"???
Where the f*** is anyone going to get water when everything within a mile of the surface is toxic, radioactive, or so full of bacteria, it's going to rot your guts out as fast as it quenches any thirst???
"May"... he says, like there's an option... Maybe folks will just learn to drink piss... Maybe we'll discover a new species of human that doesn't actually need water... ain't 70% liquid... Maybe we'll start life anew with a silicon basis instead of carbon... and be able to regenerate our health by chewing broken glass, too.
"May".... hahahahahahahaha.... ;o)
@@MrChopsticktech Yeah Centralia is one of those places that landfill burning got out of control.
@@PapaTanGh0stNI9htM4R3S0nMaInSt The operative term is "WILL" need be sourced or discovered... blah-blah-blah... There is nothing "may" about it... (lolz) ;o)
Wow I thought I was the worst damn failure in U.S. history
This just in - I'm being told I've misunderstood the title
😂😂
😆 You didn't fail to make me laugh!
Nope, I am! Just ask my wife😁
Classic comment, man. I loved it. 😅😅😅😅
I would love to see a video on the barely known about Church Rock uranium mill spill in New Mexico in 1979.
The accident remains the largest release of radioactive material in U.S. history, having released more radioactivity than the Three Mile Island accident four months earlier... But it's barely known because it happened on the reservation.
I have already done a video on it
It wouldn't be hard to be a worse release than 3 mile Island, it only released a little bit of hydrogen
@@markshort9098 Not just hydrogen. A small amount of Xenon and Iodine gas was released, but the amounts were so small it didn't even reach the insignificant stage.
I find it amazing that that small stone bridge was able to withstand the full force of the water and debris and still remain standing
Glad you specified the year. That's actually necessary when talking about Johnstown, PA & floods.
Lmao.
@Andy Wehrle and almost 2021
Just re-watched this a second time. You really did it justice, John. Anyone who was born and raised near Johnstown, PA, USA knows the story, but I’m always surprised by how few people had ever heard of it before.
My family lived in the Johnstown area during the flood in 1889. A relative, an uncle or cousin, was a victim of the flood. He contracted typhoid and died. I’ve been up to the dam remnants several times. They have a visitor’s center close by where they tell the story of the flood. I have also been to the Grandview Cemetery where many flood victims are buried. There is a monument with many gravestones. I still go to Johnstown regularly to visit family. The city is decaying though… It’s been like that for many years now
I live in Johnstown , its in a lot of advertisements that "the flood is over" as a way to try to get people to come back to the city. If you go in town they do have a measurement on how high the flood was for both of the floods on a few buildings and a things like Morley's dog between Main and vine street.
most in the area know about it pretty early as the Flood museum being a normal elementary school field trip for children or just older relatives who feel like they want to talk about it.
My father told me about both of them when i was little since he was a rescue fire fighter for the 77' flood and he refuses to go swimming at all even in a pool due to it. (which is understandable trauma)
People fixing leaks on a dam with mud cannot be shocked when it breaks
Very true
It was just shocking to me how the "redesign" used absolutely everything you probably shouldn't put into a dam with more than an acre's worth of water behind it. :shakes head:
C'mon only a fool would use just mud. They used mud AND straw
Mud is no good.
Mud and straw - that's why the Hoover dam is still standing. Right?
Oh wait.....
@@volvo09 mud, straw, and a healthy supply of gumption
I've been waiting FOREVER for one of my favorite disaster channels to cover this flood! I remember learning about it so much growing up. We had to read a new book about the flood each year, and we would always have field trips to the museum. It's horrendous just how this was all started by greed and pride. Thank you so much for covering this little piece of history!
Awesome to see this one from you. I grew up there as did my parents. It’s totally insane.
As someone who lives in Johnstown PA, our city comes off as very unknown which I see why the city is very bland at this point and doesn't have a stable population. however, there's a lot of history here with the three floods each one has a very devastating story.
Thank you for covering this :)
Fantastic video as always. I surprisingly never heard of this one. If I could suggest a video idea it'd be the West Valley Demonstration project. Used to be owned by the Getty oil co. From the 50s to the 70s. They were the only nuclear fuel reprocessing plants in the country. They'd dump nuclear fuel in the ground as well which seeped into the water table.
Thank you!
How am I today years old...and just now finding out about this. I used to live 3 miles from the WVDP and still live only about 40 miles south of it. But, never has it been discussed that the West Valley Demonstration Project Act of 1980 was signed into law to remediate this facility just 24 days before my birth...............locally there was no discussions about it, when I lived there it was just accepted the Federal Government owned the facility...but no one seems to know about this law or why the Feds own the property.
@@natpaul3777 that's interesting. WVFD's logo also has an atom on it as well lol. Story time. They had box cars loaded with contaminated soil and had to get it out of there. So one night, they took them all out without telling anyone (not even the local fire departments) needless to say folks weren't too happy. They do sketchy stuff like that every now and then. They still let people hunt the property every so often to curb the deer population.
Note, this is only the FIRST time johnstown was flooded. I hope PD covers the other 2 as well.
I grew up in Johnstown. This history is pretty well drilled into us.... lots of field trips to the museums, and southfork dam location.
You can still drive under The Stone Bridge. Trains still use it. A few years back the Stone Bridge Project gave it a face lift on one side including led lights. The other side was left as is.
I always get the chills driving under it... so many lives lost there in that spot. Absolutely tragic... and it was avoidable had the rich folk like Andrew Carnegie not neglected the dam's care and debris build up at the spillway. The members of the Fishing & Hunting Club we never found guilty. 2209 people died...a town completely devastated... and no one was ever held accountable.
I was wondering if the Johnstown Flood would eventually show up on this channel. I grew up in the Johnstown area, namely Mineral Point, and it's such a tragic story. So much negligence and poor choices led to such a mass loss of life. The one museum in town has a wall dedicated to all of those that died, and there were just so many families completely wiped out, including tourists and migrants that had come to the area just before the flood. One detail of absolute hell that you forgot to include was that the debris and barbed wire also caught fire at one point, so those trapped and the rescuers got to enjoy being burnt or cooked alive while also being crushed and drowned.
The trio of floods completely ruined the city and it's been in a death spiral ever since, which is a shame when you see how booming it used to be. The area is quite beautiful and boasts a deep history, but it's not enough to keep the city alive
He mentions it at 10 min in
The corrupt city council and the fact that they decided in the early 2000s to start importing drug addicts from New York and Philly didn't help.
Yeah I won't even step foot in Johnstown 😬 that place has become outright dangerous imo.
Thanks!
Thank you
I live in Blair County, about 45min from Johnstown. I always told myself I’d visit the site when I first learned of it but I have yet to. This video has served as a reminder for me to pay a visit and I’m planning a trip with friends next weekend. Thank you and cheers :)
@Chuckles the Great. Sorry, why use the ending term, 'cheers'? You do know, that's strictly a British, thing 🤔?
This is the video I have been waiting for! This is very close to my hometown and I visit the flood museum nearly every year as part of a tradition.
Third Saturday that I didn't sleep last night haha. I love getting this notification. Love your videos!!
Thank you for watching
@@Stevie-J [ ]
You've been hit by,
you've been struck by,
A new video
@@Stevie-J I'm an insomniac but it's led me to these replies which made me laugh so it's all good. :)
@@NM-wd7kx this is great. Gave me a smile this morning :)
I've seen a few videos about this but I like yours very much. Your illustrations are bit cheeky and I absolutely love them.
WITHOUT A DOUBT The best ,most comprehensive description of the details and underlying,under handed cause and aftermath. In a short film format
Grew up not far from Johnstown. You can drive through the town and find old buildings with markers on them that mark the level the flood reached. It is still talked about in the area for sure.
The whole people trapped in a flood of water, mud, wood is bad enough. The barbed wire factory takes it over the top. And then, it all catches on fire.
He didn't delve into the suffering and horror as much as he could have, and that might be for the best.
I moved up here years ago from Florida, never hearing about it until then. Living about 30 miles North of Johnstown, it's hard to fond someone who didn't have a family story of the flood. It's interesting to see you cover this topic and being able to actually know where it happened. I've driven along side the river in Johnstown, so seeing that old map let me picture where much of the city was back then compared to now. Can't wait for your next video. Keep up the great work.
Evidently I got family that went missing in the more recent flood and were never found. Definitely interesting seeing this get recognition due to how remote the city is for today's standards. Used to be a big steel producer.
Edit: Holy shit. You actually covered the steel city era. Thanks for mentioning the area. I recommend the physical history of the place and the Incline Plane still runs people to this day.
That would be absolutely horrifying not knowing this was coming and just hearing a rumbling coming towards your town, and then just nothing as it hits your house and tears through it
One of my favorite channels on the platform! Thanks for your hard work and awesome content.
Oh hey! I grew up in (a suburb of) Johnstown! I learned about this story when I was super young and I am so happy to see a video on it!
I'm an Eastern PA resident who once paid a visit to Johnstown; it was sobering to see a high-water mark on an old building that was quite far up the wall.
Fun Fact: Everyone in PA still pays an 18% "Johnstown Flood Tax" on liquor purchased in the state... Of course, now it just goes into the general fund...
General fund?! Lol, it goes to line pockets of politicians and their business friends. Some of you are so naive its dangerous and cute at the same time.
@@fire_n_ice1984 how is tax money laundered straight to politicians pockets? You don’t seem to to realize how corruption functions, just offering blind and naive assumptions, unless you have a source?
.... Are you serious? You know... I always wondered why my jack Daniels was $22 and it's far cheaper in other states.
Wow... You're not kidding.
"The liquor tax was made permanent in 1951, and it was increased to 15 percent in 1963 and then in 1968 it was increased to 18 percent. So anyone who purchases liquor in the state of Pennsylvania is still paying for that disaster, even though the actual disaster was paid for decades ago"
Hey, if I'm paying a tax for Johnstown it should go to Johnstown! That town really could use that money!
@@jacksonbarker7594 It's overyly simplistic and cynical to suggest that it goes directly to politicians' pockets, but it's not far off from how corruption works. The most common political corruption scheme is to take kickbacks from overpriced government contracts, which might very well be paid from that general fund.
So thankful for the men in this world who perform such life-saving rescues!
This is the best dam documentary I’ve seen in a while.
I have heard this story before, but the way you tell it really spotlights the extreme idiocracy involved.
Thank you!
This is great! I grew up about 1.5miles away from where the dam was - You can go and walk down through the lake and they have a nice little historical trail that tells the story.
I’ve been to the Johnstown flood museum. It’s a great place with lots of artifacts from the flood and a recreation of the dam so you can see in detail how it failed. I highly recommend it to anyone who is in the area.
Finally! I've been waiting for this one. Thanks so much for all your hard work in putting these videos together.
Lived in Johnstown for many years. Cool to see my hometown on your channel!
I'm moving to Johnstown in a bit and when I told my mom she was like "ah, where the flood was". I was born in 1986 (in NJ) and had no idea and researched it. Now UA-cam recommends me any videos on Johnstown flood lol.
hey PD, thanks for helping raise awareness about everyday risks that are matters of public trust. the next generation will have more people who understand how quickly things can go tits up thanks to content like this and that delta p vid. one love
Thank you for what you do.
Thank you for watching
This was done really well. Great work. Love the graphics displaying the intended functions and failure points.
Look into the Swedish disater where Ragundasjön was emptied.
It was done by a man named Magnus Huss, in 1796 he was tasked with making a canal to float logs in but he dug it throu sand and it failed. The lake was emptied in 4 hours and it contained 1 billion kubic meters of water, that is 264 billion gallons. The wave that came from it was 25 meters high. Now there is a village at the bottom named Hammarstand. If you search for Döda Fallet you will find pictures.
As a fellow swede I thank you for this tip. Never heard of it. Tack, precis vad jag behövde 10 minuter efter läggdags. :D
It is quite incredible to stand on the remains of the dam. I finally did it in 2006.
Thank you, PD! Been looking forward to this one for a while.
BRO I LIVE IN JOHNSTOWN IM SO GLAD WE'RE ON THIS CHANNEL
johnstown resident here! this event was so tragic and unnecessary. the museum is heart wrenching. thank you for covering this!
Excellent. Overall, good content and production.
Much appreciated!
The "Pennsylvanian" Amtrak Passenger train westbound from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh parallels the Conemaugh River heading into Johnstown and gives one a creepy sense of the disaster when one imagines the tons of water and debris surging down it into the City.
For those without an agricultural background straw is the dry stalk from wheat, barly or oats. Little nitrogen to make protein.
Hay is dry grass. Chlorophyll contains nitrogen atoms. If hay is not dried enough, bacteria can breed so fast that the hay and barn can disappear into thin air via flames.
Respect for the black and white box before the ad. I will subscribe for that. Made my day. Ty.
Excellent video. I'm a resident of Johnstown and I find the history of the Great Flood of 1889 fascinating.
Oh boy!!! I've been waiting for this episode!
I love to listen to your documentaries. Thanks for putting so much work in. Subscribed!
Cincinnati. Bodies were washed all the way to the Ohio, and down to Cincinnati. That is not a small distance to cover, especially for a corpse. That gives a sense of the scope and force of the flood. Cincinnati is a few hundred miles away from Johnstown. Holy smokes.
That's because the river from the dam linked to the Ohio River miles downstream.
@@dragonbornexpress5650 huh, didn't know it was a tributary. Now I feel like a fool
I live 20 mins from Johnstown, the town is a shell. Its constantly winter in that town, no nightlife, not a lot of work to find, and plenty of crime ( One of the highest crime rates in America compared to similar sized communities. The flood museum is also a reminder to why this town is so sad. We used to go watch the Chiefs play every year and I loved watching Slapshot with my Dad, Thunder In the Valley is keeping that place alive.
I hope to see somebody cover the Helicopter Accident in Derry PA 1978.. The whole town has PTSD, I worked in Derry for years and you still are not able to bring it up, people are still very much affected by what happened. Truly terrifying some of the stories I have heard.
I've been to Johnstown. I still have my t-shirt from the incline plane that says "world's slowest roller coaster the Johnstown Incline Plane" on it 🤪 🤣
A relative of my Mom's, Burkehart, died in the first flood. She was from South Fork.
My 4th great grandmother, Margaret Pratt was killed in the flood. She was 91 years old when it demolished their home and she is only listed in Biographic & Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria County, PA. "Pratt family of 2 missing, Cambria, not found." Just figured I would share a tiny piece of one of the lives lost that day.
I read about this years and years ago. I finally got to visit the site. Amazing. My Great Grandfather emigrated from Birmingham, England to Pittsburgh just three years prior to this event.
City: builds a dam
Land surveyors down ex-stream: its free real estate!
😂😂
I regret to inform you that this is only the FIRST Johnstown Flood.
There were others: The Second Flood of 1936 and the Third Flood of 1977.
The first was, by far, the worst of the three.
I first learned about this flood when I was around ten by reading a Readers Digest condensed book story on it. That and the San Franciscan earthquake of 1906 has always fascinated me. Thank you for your illustrations.
I also read about this dam failure in the same book! As well as the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
I know that debris in any flood is deadly but there is something about the idea of barbed wire barreling toward someone in a flood that seems so much worse than any other.
Amazes me how frequently I'm aware of the topic of these videos, but I still enjoy them
There's video of the 1936 saint Patrick's day flood in Tyrone.
I live outside of Tyrone near a massive steel bridge. My town is roughly 200 feet up a cliff side. The town below us Irish flats disappeared. The water hit the top of the old bridge and water in the valley was 70 feet high.
Same flood that destroyed johnstown in 36 destroyed 3 towns along the little Juniata.
Josephine, Ironsvill, Irish flats got completely washed away.
Hey Plainly Difficult. Hello from the JGSDF Eastern Army, 1st Division. 1st NBC-Defence Coy. Out of Camp Nerima in Nerima, Tokyo, Japan, me and a few others here love your videos, keep up the great work!
I love how the damn was pretty much up to code with one small compromise; then owners changed hands and made many compromises
Great Mr South London 👍🏻🇬🇧
Thank you
I grew up 40 minutes away from Johnstown. I recommend everyone visit the flood museum. Small but powerful.
I remember the first time i had ever heard about the Johnstown disaster. It was in an older readers digest, drama in real life series. Very well done video!
Another fantastic video!
After a recent trip to the site, I'd love to hear you cover the Malpasset Dam disaster. My friend's mum grew up in the nearby town of Fréjus that was destroyed by the dam collapse and took us out to where you can visit the structure remains while I was there visiting.
Johnstown local here, thanks for covering this topic
Dam that's terrible.
My hometown! Thank's for uploading.
A family friend told us of her and her husband visiting the memorial for this disaster recently and they got so overwhelmed they had to leave a bit early. Its so awful :(
Another great job. I appreciate that you made it a point to mention the barbed wire. Many accounts don't.
A dam collapse is bad enough. A barbed-wire filled deluge is just, I can’t even.
Pretty horrible!
Not just that, but full blown trains too along with miles worth of railroad tracks twisted into metal pretzels.
@@dragonbornexpress5650 And it caught on fire, because why not?! 😔
@@PresidentOfBepis Not to make light of it, but this is the Sharknado of disasters.
@@merc7105 “well it can’t get any worse.”
“…it’s worse.”
This is still a big deal in Pennsylvania, at least in that region of the state. I have friends and family from that area, and they are quick to bring it up in conversation.
It's interesting that most people in the city itself, don't know much about the history. I lived, went to college, and worked there for about ten years. They *know* there were floods. Most bring up the 77 flood. This is due to that being in recent memory for over 50% of the population
Good video and good description of the events! Pretty much person who grows up here is familiar with the history of the flood(s). Johnstown also flooded in 1936 and 1977, with the 77' flood being attributed to the failure of 3 dams in the surrounding foothills.
Frick is well known to be one of the biggest reasons why the dam failed. They used to take their carriages over the dam. Frick drove over it. It was bumpy. He told the upkeeper that he (Frick) could get a new carriage or the upkeeper could lower the top of the dam and which did he think that Frick would do. The top couple of inches were removed from the dam. Interesting thing, the stone bridge is still there and still functional.
I lived and worked in Johnstown for about ten years. Everyone knows it flooded. Most people (in the city) talk about the 1977 flood. They remember it or had parents affected by it. Just around 2016, they were doing excavation work and found a motorcycle lost to the 77 flood. The original owner was still alive and living in the city
I'm from very near there. Nice job on this video.
Genelecs studio monitors, mate you're loaded lmao glad to know you're dedicated to audio to that amount
Good spot!
as someone from the area, I recommend the museum if you get a chance. super cool place. other than that, Johnstown is extremely dangerous and even in the best areas you dont want to even be driving at night. definitely a day trip only place.
Wow. Crazy how in the past things like this happened
Dam breaks are terrifying events. The power of that much water is mind boggling.
The cemetery of Johnstown and the 700+ unnamed victims is so sad. If you ever go to PA, there is a national historic park at the dam site and town. It is worth the effort to visit.
This is so good! It makes me really want to see you do the great Dayton flood of 1913.
thank you for making this. i like in johnstown and its honestly hard to see others worship Andrew Carnegie and Frick like they were good people. like wow man thanks for the library that sure makes up for 2000 dead people because of you and your buddies negligence.
I am from ebensburg Pennsylvania, roughly 13 miles from Johnstown Pennsylvania, I’ve learned of this flood at a young age and it’s very much a part of the local culture. It was actually my 8th grade felid tip to go to the dam and the museums there. My great grandfather also lived in south fork Pennsylvania in the 1880s and is said to have witnessed the flood and its aftermath. If you have any questions about the flood ask me as I am a history buff myself and being from here I have a great deal of knowledge and information on the subject.
@Vivmiester. Hello, from one history buff, to another 😉!
Your ad inductor induces nostalgia
Remember this happened at a time when there was no state or federal relief so everyone had to rely on the results of any fundraising.