The summer of 1889 will ever be memorable for its appalling disasters by flood and flame. In that period fell the heaviest blow of the nineteenth century—a blow scarcely paralleled in the histories of civilized lands. Central Pennsylvania, a center of industry, thrift and comfort, was desolated by floods unprecedented in the records of the great waters. On both sides of the Alleghenies these ravages were felt in terrific power, but on the western slope their terrors were infinitely multiplied by the bursting of the South Fork Reservoir, letting out millions of tons of water, which, rushing madly down the rapid descent of the Conemaugh Valley, washed out all its busy villages and hurled itself in a deadly torrent on the happy borough of Johnstown. The frightful aggravations which followed the coming of this torrent have waked the deepest sympathies of this nation and of the world, and the history is demanded in permanent form, for those of the present day, and for the generations to come.
This is a new edition of “THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD” by Willis Johnson including all the appalling record; the breaking of the south fork dam; the sweeping out of the Conemaugh valley; the over-throw of Johnstown; the massing of the wreck at the railroad bridge; escapes, rescues, searches for survivors and the dead; relief organizations, stupendous charities, with full accounts also of the destruction on the Susquehanna and Juniata rivers, and the Bald Eagle creek.
This edition has all new photos, a linked table of contents for both chapters and illustrations, and any typographical errors that appeared in the original edition have been corrected.
