On May 31,1889, a wall of rushing water three stories high struck the city of Johnstown Pennsylvania. In its wake most of the town was destroyed and over 2,200 people were killed. In lives lost, the Johnstown PA Flood was the worst civil disaster the United States ever suffered. Every state in the nation sent some type of relief, and the people of sixteen foreign countries, including Russia, Turkey, France, Britain, Australia and Germany sent aid. For Clara Barton, the disaster was the first big test for her newly organized American Red Cross.
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The source of the water was a failed earth and rock dam 14 miles above the city. The state had operated a canal system between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and built the dam for dry season storage. William E. Morris, principal engineer for Pennsylvania, designed the dam and, in 1840, construction began in a valley near the town of South Fork. Construction was completed in 1852, with delay due mainly to financial difficulties.
Considerable care went into the construction of the new dam. The valley floor was cleared down to the bare rock. The upstream part of the embankment was built up of successive rolled layers of clay and earth, 2 ft thick, which were "puddled" by letting them sit under water for a few days to create a watertight barrier. The exposed upstream puddled ends were then covered with shale and small stone called "riprap" so that the action of the water that would fill the reservoir would not wash against the dam and weaken it. To add weight and strength to the embankment, the core of the dam consisted of shale, earth and small stones while the downstream section of the dam was built up of mostly rock, many weighing over 10 tons. Officially referred to as the Western Reservoir, the site became locally known as the South Fork Dam and was a "mature example of earth and rock dams."
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