The Johnstown Flood

On the afternoon of May 30, 1889, the storm had begun to come in. The day before the flood was Memorial Day, and the town expected hundreds of visitors when the official summer season started for the city of Johnstown. Shortly after dark, John Parke Jr., who had been “employed by the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club as the so-called ‘resident engineer’” (19), stared out at the dark but, not sensing anything catastrophic, returned to his home and went to sleep.

The storm that was coming into the valley had begun days before to the west in Kansas and Nebraska, and on the morning of Memorial Day, and when the storm finally moved east far enough to hit Pennsylvania, “it was the worst downpour that had ever been recorded for that section of the country” (21). In some places on the mountain, up to 10 inches of rain had been recorded, even though just a few dozen miles west in Pittsburgh, sources recorded hardly more than an inch.

As was typical for the time of year, all the hotels in town were full and the bars fully patronized. Typical of the demographic, the city was full of “strapping steelworkers” (22) as the Cambria Iron Company ran day and night forging steel, the same as it had for decades.