The Johnstown Flood

American author and historian David McCullough’s debut book, The Johnstown Flood (1968), is a work of social history that chronicles the Johnstown Flood of 1889, a deluge of water and debris that tore through a steel community in Central Pennsylvania, killing more than 2,000 people and causing millions of dollars in damage. The flood resulted from a dam bursting in the mountains above Johnstown. The dam had been somewhat hurriedly built to create a lake for an exclusive summer resort, and although known to be weak, calls for it to be reinforced were ignored. The disaster that ensued is a story of inequality, greed, and gross negligence. To tell it, McCullough interviewed some of the few living survivors of the flood that has since become a national scandal etched into the American consciousness.

Other works by this author include John Adams, 1776, and The Wright Brothers.

Summary

Located about 70 miles east of Pittsburgh, Johnstown was founded in 1800 at the intersection of the Stony Creek and Little Conemaugh Rivers, where the two meet to form the larger Conemaugh River. Surrounded by the Allegheny Mountains in a very deep valley downstream from the Conemaugh River, the town was prone to flooding whenever heavy rainfall ensued.