1889 what did the American dam break?

On May 3rd1889 and 3rd1day, the reservoir dam on Pennsylvania Hill, which is 12 mile higher than Johnston, burst its banks, and 5.6 billion gallons of water weighing 20 million tons washed away the valley, leaving several towns in Johnston in ruins. About 2000 people died and the loss was about $6.5438+0.2 million.

For decades, Johnston, Pennsylvania has been flooded by the Komov River and its tributary, the Storey River. In the prosperous steel city of Johnston, there is a joke: when water began to appear in the streets, people were saying the same old saying: "The dam broke-go to the mountains!" People laugh when they say this.

The dam at the top of the canyon never leaks. It blocks Lake Komov. The calm lake is 3.5 miles long, 1.25 miles wide and 100 feet deep. This is an artificial lake, which is specially used by Pittsburgh millionaires who belong to the Southfork Fishing and Hunting Club. 1883, Voorst proposed to use it as the water level of the Pennsylvania Railway Canal. The reservoir was completed on 1852. After five years without use, the loss was $250,000. 500 hectares of land and water were wasted. 1875, John Raleigh bought the land and changed it into a country club five years later. The club is composed of three people, and their leader is Colonel B·F· Rafe, a wealthy railway and tunnel contractor. According to his orders, the spillway was built at the bottom to prevent the caught fish from escaping. In this way, the rising water can only be discharged through the wooden sink at the top. Even a poor engineer knows that this is a stupid thing that will cause disaster. However, the financial giants wanted money, and only 17000 dollars was used to build the dam. There is no doubt that their savings have caused thousands of deaths.

No one in Konamov Canyon knew that danger was imminent. Only one guest of the club, engineer John G. Parker, watched the rise of the reservoir curiously for two days in the case of continuous rain. 1889 May 3 1 It rained for 20 minutes at noon, and the reservoir rose by 3 inches. Parker mobilized some workers in the club and directed them to dig a new spillway around the dam for drainage. When he saw some old and useless pebbles begin to roll down from the dam crest, he knew that the situation was not good, jumped on his horse and fled to Nanfke, two miles away. He told the residents that the dam was about to crack. A few minutes after 3 pm, Parker did send two telegrams: one for Gautier Factory (also called cambra City), where there are 6,000 workers in cambra Iron Works, and the other for Johnston. Then he took 2,000 residents of Nanfu with what he could take and valuable things across the valley slope. No one in Gautier Factory and Johnston got Parker's attention. Floods have appeared, and in two towns, several fallen telephone poles cut off communication lines. In Johnston, floods have flooded the first floor of most buildings. Despite warnings that this would happen, residents moved to the second floor as usual, waiting for the situation to change.

When the telephone line to Pittsburgh was cut off, the flood had reached Johnston. The gravel on the dam kept flowing down, forming a gap 25 feet wide in the middle of the dam. The gushing of the lake widened the gap and the dam nearly 450 feet high collapsed immediately. According to a witness of the dam, "the noise is louder than Niagara Falls." 125 feet high water rushed down the valley at a speed of 50 miles per hour, destroying every house in Southfork. Fortunately, these houses were evacuated after being warned.

In the next mile of the deep valley, the flood rushed to the mineral spring corner like a beast. More than 40 houses were washed away. The bodies of 16 people drowned by the flood floated in the rolling water. The flood washed away the meredith Church and its foundations.

The flood was churning and headed straight for East Connor Moff. Here, the first warning of disaster is not the roar of flood, but the harsh train whistle. Half a mile outside the city, a motorcycle driver has taken the truck out of the narrow Konamov parking lot. He saw the flood rushing behind him and rushing into the city. He sounded a disaster warning with his whistle crazily. The driver jumped off the running motorcycle and ran home, taking his family over the hillside and out of danger. His behavior puzzled many passengers who were sitting in two trains and preparing to leave.

West Konamov was completely submerged by the raging flood, but residents still struggled with the flood. A house floating from the corner of a mineral spring crashed into a hillside. Konamov residents grabbed the house with their hands and hooks until five people trapped on the roof jumped to safety.

The next town on the spillway is Woodville. Because this area is located on a steeper hillside than the upstream town, it is instantly submerged by billions of tons of waterfalls. 800 buildings were pulled up by water. It is estimated that there are 5,000 residents in Woodville, but the death toll is uncertain. At least half of them drowned in the flood.

Next is Johnston, the largest city in the valley, with 65,438+02,000 residents. One end of its triangular complex points directly to the irresistible flood. Historians and scientists were shocked when the city was suddenly swallowed up by the flood. Within seconds, hundreds of buildings and residents were swept away by the flood. A stone hall of the YMCA collapsed. The huge building, the German Lutheran Church, collapsed into a pile of rubble. All the buildings in the city collapsed. Johnston's first-class hotel, the brick Herbert Hotel, is in ruins. The manager just had time to call the residents to the roof with the kitchen staff and waiters, and finally he and his staff escaped. Most of the frightened guests (about 60 people) were trapped on the stairs on the third floor and drowned, but only one survived.

Thousands of unfortunate people are struggling in this half-mile blockade, and they can't hold it with ropes. A fire broke out in the chaos. Hundreds of people climbed up the ruins and struggled ashore, trapped between roaring floods and fires. It is reported that more than 200 people committed suicide by jumping off a building.

The flood in Johnston receded, but 2,500 to 7,000 people died. It took 7,500 workers three months to clean up the ruins and bury the bodies they found, and 800 people were buried in a cemetery, unknown and unmarked.

On May 3 1889 and 3 1 day, the floods in Johnston, USA destroyed many people's homes, leaving many parents without their children, and the children also lost their parents, resulting in crowded cemeteries. The scene was terrible. This kind of tragedy will never be forgotten by anyone who has experienced this disaster.

A flood turned several towns and Johnston into ruins, killing 2,500-7,000 people. Analysis of the causes of reservoir collapse is mainly attributed to the financial giants who invested in the construction of the reservoir. It only cost 17000 dollars to build the dam. There is no doubt that the money they saved caused thousands of deaths. Afterwards, when an engineer inspected the dam, he pointed out: "Reducing the inclination of the spire, dome or top center, closing the bottom drainage channel and blocking the spillway are all major architectural mistakes." It is difficult to understand what the engineers involved in the project did at that time. An ordinary engineer knows that this is a stupid thing that will lead to great disaster. How should these financial giants and engineers feel about the tragic situation after the dam break?