Johnstown Flood

May 31, 2008

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Profile America — Saturday, May 31st. Today marks the anniversary of the one of the worst disasters to hit the U.S. — the Johnstown Flood of 1889, in Pennsylvania. Heavy rains burst a nearby dam forming a lake for a fishing and hunting retreat. When the dam broke, it unleashed 20 million tons of water in a giant wave that roared through Johnstown, killing more than 2,300 men, women and children, and destroying the homes of thousands more. The flood remains one of the nation’s most costly, single weather-related disasters. In the first seven years of this decade, floods across the U.S. killed some 278 people. Property damage is estimated at over $123 billion mostly in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at <www.census.gov>.

Sources: Chase's Calendar of Events 2008, p. 293
Statistical Abstract of the United States 2008, t. 374
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2008edition.html