. Approximately 550 homes were destroyed, and another 900-plus were damaged. We saw the water lift up our house, said Enda Baisden Short, recalling for. February 25Because of heavy rains, dam #3 was rising 1-2 inches per hour. Engineering, Not Rainfall, Given Blame, Logan Banner, March 9, 1972. 2/3 (152/153) (2018), pp. Some residents in higher hilltop homes overlooking Buffalo Creek, watched as entire houses floated down the hollow, some later crashing into a small bridge downstream. Its not even past.. As a result many possible . In the year 2000, increased attention was focused on the regulation of coal waste impoundments following a failure near Inez, Kentucky. Gazette-Mail/L. Middle Fork Buffalo Creek, Saunders, West Virginia, Volume 1, February 1973. miners. In just a few brief moments, 125 people were killed, 1,100 were injured, and over 4,000 were left without homes [1] as the result of a collapsed coal waste dam. The first coal camps at Buffalo Creek were built. A helicopter hovers over one location in the Buffalo Creek valley, surveying the damage in the aftermath of the coal dam failures and devastating flood of February 26, 1972. February 28, 1972. The flood caused many tears, pain and death. As of December 2014, some 331 of these facilities were rated as either holding a high or significant safety hazard meaning likely loss of life in the former case, and significant economic/environmental damage in the latter case. Gerald M. Stern, The Buffalo Creek Disaster: The Story of the Survivors Unprecedented Lawsuit, New York: Random House, 1976. 1 filled up with fine waste, then Dam No. Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles. 3 was rising one or two inches per hour. Film Clip, The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act Of Man, YouTube.com (8:22), February 20, 2012. We saw the water lift up our house, said Enda Baisden Short, recalling for The Herald Dispatch of Huntington, West Virginia that she and her husband had run from their home early that Saturday morning just prior to coal waste flood. (1976). Richard Carelli, Mining Official Blames Explosions on Flood Water Hitting Hot Slag Pile, Charleston Gazette, March 9, 1972. March 11, 1967Pittstons Dola, W.Va., dam failed and a massive flood West Virginias Secretary of State at the time, Jay Rockefeller (D) who became a candidate for Governor running against Arch Moore in the 1972 fall election also favored banning strip mining. State of West Virginia sued Pittston in both state and federal court for the states In 2012, a section of embankment being worked on collapsed at a coal slurry pond in northern West Virginia. In fact, the company was cited for over 5,000 safety violations at its mines nationally in 1971. MSHA said 49 impoundments pose a significant hazard because of the potential damage from a failure. Russell Mokhiber, Buffalo Creek, Chapter 5, Corporate Crime & Violence: Big Business Power and the Abuse of the Public Trust, San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1998. 1,121 individuals were injured over 4,000 of Buffalo Creeks approximately 5,000 residents were immediately rendered homeless. LOGAN COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) - It is a day to remember for Logan County. This mining activity, though in the past, had stripped away the water-absorbing forest undergrowth, thus increasing surface run-off during heavy precipitation. Gerald M.Stern writes the story of The Buffalo Creek Disaster, how a coal cleaning impoundment dam burst, killing 125 people injuring more than 1000 and causing over 4000 people to be homeless. 1 (FALL 1999), pp. I was thrown from side to side and crushed, he recounted, my insides was crushed so hard it just seemed my eyeballs was trying to pop out, and I couldnt get my breath at all. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. the burning refuse pile before wiping out the Buffalo Creek valley. Pittston Quits the Coal Business, Buffalo CreekFlood.org. Although its velocity gradually decreased as it traveled down the valley, the event caused death and destruction as far as 15 miles downstream of the dams. Some of the flood damage in the aftermath of the Buffalo Creek disaster in West Virginia, showing "mud line" on damaged home, indicating approximation of flood levels for some structures, while others were carried away in the wave or disintegrated into pieces. You may unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the provided link on any marketing message. The current members of [the Governors] panel are either oriented to coal or apologists for the tragedy, so we are creating our own commission of 19 residents to take testimony from eyewitnesses, said Pat McClintock at the time. regulations forbid the closing off of any stream or the impoundment of water Ralph Nader letter to Congressional committees raises dangers of coal dams. In 1973, the West Virginia Legislature passed the Dam Control Act, regulating all dams in the state. Bridges were smashed to bits. The state's investigation into the disaster is filled with controversy. The pool was within three feet of the crest of the dam, and ominous cracks appeared. Logan County West Virginia Man, 1997. Survivor Fred Pierson, who lived at Saunders, never shared his story beyond his close family members or attended a memorial service until last year on the 50th anniversary. And it also continued dumping its coal wastes in the area as well, absent the use of watery waste dams. . 1/2 (Spring/Fall 2010), pp. 51 years later, memories still haunt survivors of Buffalo Creek flood. Low 54F. The "suspenseful and completely absorbing story" (San Francisco Chronicle) of how survivors of the worst coal-mining disaster in history triumphed over corporate irresponsibilitywritten by the young lawyer who took on their case and won.One Saturday morning in February 1972, an impoundment dam owned by the Pittston Coal Company burst, sending a 130 million gallon, 25 foot tidal wave of . 12, No. In a court statement later, Mr. Staten recounted his travail and losing his wife: When I looked back and saw her she said, Take care of my baby.Thats the last time I saw her., Mr. Staten and his son, meanwhile, swept along in the water, were struggling to save themselves. Depta recalls the trailers brought in by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to set up temporary living for the newly homeless. Click for copy. At the time, the EPA called it the worst environmental disaster in the southeast United States. The coal company called it an act of God (sound familiar?). But it brings back memories. Volunteers picked up trash around the creek. gave way, killing eight people. Everything in Its Path:Destruction of Community in the Buffalo Creek Flood (1976), a non-fiction book by American author Kai T. Erikson, won the 1978 National Book Award for documenting the aftermath of the Buffalo Creek flood disaster in Logan County, West Virginia which killed 125 people and left 4,000 people homeless out of a 5,000-person local population. By DYLAN VIDOVICH George Vecsey, Memories of a Disaster, GeorgeVecsey.com, February 22, 2012. Tim Hall, left, explains how the events of the Buffalo Creek Flood shaped his life during a memorial service at the Buffalo Creek Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 24. Erikson, a Yale professor when he arrived in Buffalo Creek, is one such outsider, having no connection to the region until he was brought in as an expert witness. Specific problems, such as the presence of mine workings near impoundments, are dealt with using sound engineering approaches. He said the impoundment failure at Buffalo Creek was accompanied by multiple warnings. Many homes were lost during the Buffalo Creek mining disaster in 1972. AprilOver 1,000 residents registered claims with Pittston. A few weeks later, on February 22nd, a federal mine inspector and the company safety engineer observed the dams and found conditions satisfactory. and denies the motion for the time being while plaintiffs obtain full discovery. March 2, 1973Judge Hall holds hearing on Pittstons motion to dismiss amzn_assoc_linkid = "40258c095eb99c570bd3ec58d7f0a3fb"; The failure occurred a minute or so before 8:00 a.m. February 26, 1972, and was solely the cause of the Buffalo Creek flood. One resident at the scene, later quoted in in Kai T. Eriksons book. Crowd of onlookers in the distance surveys the enormous debris field jammed up against a downstream bridge following the Buffalo Creek coal flood. March 5, 1972. 16, Nos. I told you this was going to happen, he said, I told you. He had voted for Randolph, but was frustrated with the political process and how the locals were regarded by most politicians. But these werent the only investigations; there were also several others, including: one or more Congressional committees, the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. studied the 1972 Buffalo Creek flood in WV. 3) was built over Dam No. Robert Weedall, West Virginias climatologist, noted in later remarks that yes, Act of God is a legal term, but there were other perhaps more apt legal terms that might apply to what had happened in Buffalo Creek, such as involuntary manslaughter or criminal negligence. The record, however, would prove that acts of man had everything to do with what happened at Buffalo Creek. Pittstons Stern met with plaintiffs and obtained settlement authority. February 1972. February 26, 2022, marks the 50th anniversary of one of the most devastating mine disasters in U.S. history. of Inquiry into the Buffalo Creek Floods documents. I dont know where. Because of the downpour, nearly 50 acre-feet of fresh water filled the pool of Dam No. In Buffalo Creek Revisited: Deconstructing Kai Eriksons Stereotypes, the sociologists Lynda Ann Ewen and Julia A. Lewis write: Eriksons conclusions about the people of Appalachia have along with studies of snake handlers, come to define what students who study sociology know about all of Appalachia. They assert that Erikson validates the national perceptions of Appalachians as peculiar, isolated, and backward and that Everything in Its Path has become a part of the social construction of the modern stereotype of Appalachia.. Many coal waste impoundments had to be either modified or closed to eliminate hazardous conditions. On February 26, 1972, tragedy struck a small mining community in the coalfields of southern West Virginia. Less than a year later, in February 1971, Dam No. of their damage claims. make a donation to help support the research and writing at this website, Online Exhibit /Special Collections, Marshall University. amzn_assoc_asins = "0821415565,1467135496,0345543254,0618872248"; 128-129. 3/4 (SPRING/SUMMER 2009), pp. Out of the total settlement, Arnold and Porter took a legal fee of $3 million. Among those pressing for action in Washington was consumer advocate Ralph Nader, well known by then for taking on politicians and corporations. In 1977, Gov. Gertie Moore recalls a personal story about the Buffalo Creekduring a memorial service at the Buffalo Creek Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 24. A coal mine explodes - and a dam fails. dam will hold. Uploaded by api-369440949. The United States declined to sue Pittston for cleanup costs. Robert Shy, among those in the West Virginia Army National Guard who helped during the crisis, flew helicopters up and down the valley delivering water and milk and picking up dazed and injured survivors. Penny Loeb's 2007 book, "Moving Mountains". But his pregnant wife couldnt get out; she was trapped in the house. They created this place and they destroyed this place, and we are just disposable, basically. In March 1967, a partial collapse at one of the dams caused some flooding in the hollow, alarming residents already concerned about the structures. Pierson said he still feels a bit of anger over the aftermath of the flood. The fact that the plaintiffs were involved in a lawsuit against Pittston instead of passively accepting their fate was alone evidence of their ability to cope, Ewen and Lewis write, essentially arguing that Everything in Its Path is myopic in its attention on the communitys destruction. Me driving a bus, I knew about 80% of these people, and every name that went by, I can visualize them at that time, Moore said. Buffalo Creek disaster remembered 40 years later The Associated Press The Associated Press Feb 27, 2012 The Tri-State's TRUSTED news source. (The Herald-Dispatch via AP). Many in the downstream communities were keenly aware of the unstable nature of these impoundments, and expressed their concern to government officials. In fact, there had already been signs of trouble at the dams, which should have raised alarms and efforts at corrective construction. received English National Coal Boards booklet Spoil Heaps and Lagoons warning I go to fire departments and teach about nuclear fallout. The Buffalo Creek Flood and Disaster: Official Report from the Governors Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry, 1973 (PDF of actual report at Marshall University). Ive got uranium and all kinds of radioactive stuff in my bedroom. 1966A United Kingdom coal-waste dump in South Aberfam, Wales similar It brings back old memories of being in Vietnam, he said. By 1972, the third dam ranged from 45-to-60 feet in height, and the Middle Fork had become a series of black pools. Several lawsuits were also filed in the wake of the Buffalo Creek disaster, including a large class action with 645 survivors and victim family members suing Pittston for $64 million. The tautly-worded 31-page report offered detailed findings and evidence of corporate negligence and government failures in the disaster, and proposed 21 recommendations. It took a mere 15 minutes to totally fail, Spadaro said. C.J. When the water set it down again, it just flattened out on the ground. Share Buffalo Creek Flood. 1924Crane Creek flood (Mercer County, WV), refuse pile blocking a waterway Stereotypesparticularly the white trash stereotypes depicting Appalachians as lazy, ignorant, and hopelessallow for the continued exploitation of Appalachia by industry. One thing that really impressed me, though, was there was no immediate display of emotion, Porterfield said, remembering the survivors. Tom Nugent, Death at Buffalo Creek: The 1972 West Virginia Flood Disaster, New York: Norton, 1973. For those sympathetic to the survivors, Rabins statement rings true. The Charleston Gazette of February 1972 reporting on the early flood death total, with front-page photo of damaged homes thrown about on the valley floor. 1, No. No criminal charges were brought against the mining executives for their negligence in the creation and operation of the illegal and unstable coal waste dams. Governor Arch Moore accepted a $1 million settlement from the Pittston Coal Company related to the 1972 Buffalo Creek Flood. The Earth Justice organization, one of the environmental groups following this issue, has complied a U.S. map of these sites as shown above. Kai Erikson's book, "Everything In Its Path: Destruc-tion of Community in The Buffalo Creek Flood". The moving wall of wastewater did its damage in seconds, in repeated fashion, as it moved down the hollow. The lawsuit and the book provide the 1975, which recounted a major court case and liability settlement that emerged from the tragedy on Buffalo Creek. November 1968Consolidation Coal Company mine explosion at Farmington, He didnt make it so all these kids, all of them I knew, I knew their parents.. On Feb. 26, 1972, at approximately 8 a.m., a coal slurry impoundment dam owned by Pittston Coal Company burst . A motion to make the resolution binding on Pittston management was defeated by Dredging by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers helped but did nothing to support trout habitat. Pierson recalled having to walk to Lorado and his father forcing his way into a company store in order to obtain formula for his infant sister, who was born Jan. 6 of that year. amzn_assoc_search_bar = "true"; They looked like huge metallic pretzels. amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "thpohidill-20"; Actual death toll would be 125, nearly twice early reports. A separate settlement for survivors amounted to about $13,000 per plaintiff. two telephone books worth of victim statements. Buffalo Creek, whose habitat was destroyed along a 17-mile (27-kilometer) stretch, is teeming with trout again, after a steady, coordinated effort by Harvey and others to get back what they once had and share it with future generations. They also worried about the mining practice of dumping coal mining slag or gob coal mining waste into the dams. shares to 1,217 shares. Somewhere down in this valley I was born, Breiding sings on the album, adopting the persona of a fourth-generation coal miner who never left home. Some 208 of these coal combustion waste sites are known to have contaminated groundwater, wetlands, and/or rivers. The physical conditions leading to the failure of the dam are complex and involve a weak foundation and saturated embankment giving rise to failure of the downstream portion of the dam and a sudden total collapse of the remainder of the dam due to liquefaction. And by 1968, the company was dumping more gob at a third location, another 600 feet upstream. And that same year, 1967, the U.S. Department of the Interior had warned state officials that the Buffalo Creek dams and 29 others throughout West Virginia were unstable and dangerous. Events Leading To The Buffalo Creek Disaster, BuffaloCreekFlood.org. The U.S. recommended an emergency spillway on Dam #3 in his inspection report. Chad Motrie's 2003 history of Appalachian strip mining. bringing the total to 625, and $64 million in damages. The Logan prosecutor said at the time that Pittstons failure to receive a state dam license was merely a misdemeanor and that a one-year statute of limitations for prosecutions had lapsed. The water was there, and then it was gone Edna Baisden And on the morning of February 26, 1972, just after 8:00 am, that worst fear was realized. State officials requested a few minor alterations to the impoundment. 2 gave way, quickly followed by Dam No. This work revealed the inadequacies that existed at that time in the safety of many of the dams constructed by the coal mining industry. A temporary morgue was set up at an elementary school in the town of Man. April 1, 1974 Pittston moved to dismiss absent plaintiffs, plaintiffs claiming psychic injury while they were physically away from Buffalo Creek during the flood. Dam #3 in his inspection report. The failure of a giant 84-acre coal ash impoundment (upper right) at TVAs Kingston Fossil Plant in Tennessee, released 5.4 million cubic yards of ash slurry into the Emory & Clinch rivers and the downstream community of Harriman, TN. The sociologist Kai Erikson was brought in for the latter suit as an expert witness on behalf of the survivors. If you are a WordPress user with administrative privileges on this site, please enter your email address in the box below and click "Send". The Buffalo Creek . Richard Martin's 2015 book, "Coal Wars". The association used settlement money to start fixing the creek. But his youngest son and daughter and his wife were among the missing. Pittston, meanwhile, would inform its investors that the 1974 settlement that had come with one of the survivors' lawsuits did not impact the company's profit margin. Were owned by the coal company. "one acre of area covered by water to a depth of 300 feet", OR Plaintiffs filed their more definite statement of their damage claims. Subsequent The goal of MSHAs impoundment program continues to help ensure that: Impoundments constructed by the coal industry are designed to accepted dam safety standards. The people of Appalachia seem to be forever poised at some vague mid-point between ability and disability, is one such Erikson statement. Nader and McAteer, in a letter to key members of Congress urging investigations, estimated that hundreds of thousands of West Virginians living in narrow Appalachian valleys, could be threatened by sudden catastrophic flooding from unstable coal waste dams. Sources: The Herald Dispatch, newspaper of Huntington, WV, Thomas Marsh, and the West Virginia Division of Culture and History. He spoke with residents, including a woman who said she lost eighteen relatives in the flood. President Richard Nixon, then in China, had contacted Moore by phone to promise Federal disaster aid. Pittston settled all property damage claims. Both the Governors Commission and the Citizens Commission set about their investigations, and each group began holding public hearings and collecting information regarding the disaster. West Virginia Governor's report: "The Buffalo Creek Flood And Disaster". Residents were just awakening that Saturday morning; some entire families were still in bed. And for the survivors of the Buffalo Creek Disaster, there was little real recovery. MAN - Monday marked the 46th anniversary of the Buffalo Creek Flood. I love it, said Jacob Turkale, 25, who caught a rainbow trout Tuesday. #3 in his inspection report. The survivors were not allowed to address the meeting. The three dams also served as something of a crude pollution-prevention system: filtering, settling out, and retaining the dirty prep plant particles and toxins found in the coal wastewater, also enabling some reuse of the water in processing. By March 2, Republican Governor Arch Moore announced the formation of an Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry to investigate the flood. Jack Doyle, Date Posted: 31 January 2019 The loss of more than 100 people in the Buffalo Creek disaster half a century ago . Jules Lob, Buffalo Creek Now A Valley of Death, Charleston Gazette, March 5, 1972. The first restoration, however, came with the railroads, rebuilt to serve the mines, which were operating again within a week of the flood. For outsiders, these stereotypes dehumanize the exploited individuals. The result of the dam bursting was 132 million gallons of black wastewater being unleashed onto the 16 communities that encompass Buffalo Creek. Coal Co. v. De Wese, 30 The tragedy resulted in a $13.5 million class action settlement, and led to the 1973 Dam Control Act. It was the flood at lick fork. Mimi Pickering (Film Director), Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man (essay), Library of Congress, 1978 (in 1984, filmmaker Mimi Pickering completed Buffalo Creek Revisited, an update on the flood and its consequences). The outcome of the lawsuits surrounding Buffalo Creek go far in demonstrating the power divide between the haves and the have-nots in Appalachia. and damage claims. UPI photographer Leo Gardner, one of the first outsiders to reach the area reported, Lorado was wiped out. Another early report from the devastation noted: 52 bodies lying on both sides of the road running alongside Buffalo Creek. Some drowned in the floodwaters, while others were buried by landslides, as a thick muck had moved along with the coal water. Emery Jeffreys (former reporter for The Logan Banner; account of his early flood-site reporting), Mud, Muck and Misery, LoganWV.us, February 27, 2018. A U.S. Geological Home; Creek dams. The Citizens Commission found Pittston Coal reckless and negligent and the state negligent in ensuring safety compliance. Pittstons Oil Division applied to Maines Department of Environmental Protection Afterward, the survivors informally sit and talk about their memories from the flood and how it affected their lives. .In 1971, Pittston was cited for over 5,000 safety violations at its mines nationally. February 22A federal mine inspector andBMCsafety engineer Coal disaster 50 years later: WVa creek teeming with fish By JOHN RABY The Associated Press, Updated February 26, 2022, 12:47 p.m. Jacob Turkale held a rainbow trout he caught Tuesday along. Pittston [I]f you dont do something, she wrote, prophetically, were all going to be washed away. Her letter did bring a state inspector to visit the dams. One retired coal miner who survived the flood, but who lost his wife, daughter and granddaughter in the disaster, explained what he experienced in one. In that case, the bottom of the 72-acre Big Branch slurry impoundment owned by the Martin County Coal Corp. broke through an abandoned underground mine located below it. At approximately 8 a.m., a coal waste dam collapsed on the Middle Fork of Buffalo Creek, releasing 132 million gallons of water, coal refuse, and silt into the narrow mountain valley. Aerial photograph used during investigation of Buffalo Creek Disaster, showing the approximate locations of the three coal waste gop dams, and the path taken by coal slurry flood wave on its destructive run downstream. Nader was also quoted saying: The Buffalo Creek massacre is only one more in the long series of tragedies which coal corporations have perpetrated upon the people of Appalachia, especially of West Virginia.. I saw my neighbors houses leave. The problem of coal waste impoundments in Appalachia and all across America has not gone away since the 1972 Buffalo Creek disaster. One newspaper, reporting on the study and the Senate hearings, used the headlines Army Corps of Engineers Says Dam Doomed From Start (below). dumping coal refuse into the mouth of Middle Fork hollow. Ben A. Franklin, New York Times News Service, Dam Failures Common: Whos Liable for Flooding, Charleston Gazette, February 28, 1972. Last updated on December 30, 2015. Buffalo Creek, West Virginia Division of Culture and History, 2012. The Buffalo Creek Disaster. Its nine members, however, were either sympathetic to the coal industry, or government officials whose departments might have been complicit in the dams failures. Arnold and Porter gave Pittston a $32.5 million written settlement proposal. Table of Contents. Old community ties and neighbor networks could not be reestablished. "$1, 000, 001 Settlement in Flood Suit," Charleston Gazette, 11-15-1977. Gertie Moore, a former Logan County Schools bus driver, tearfully recalls two children who perished in the Buffalo Creek Flood during a memorial service at the Buffalo Creek Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 24. The flood wave destroyed houses and mobile homes, uprooted trees, and swept topsoil, huge rocks, trucks and cars downstream. The dams themselves were certainly not state-of-the-art construction. Recent history suggests that a number of these facilities and practices hold public safety risks and/or environmental threats. hearings, 91 witnesses, and 2,000 pages of transcript that Pittston has shown For as it turns out, there are coal waste impoundments, and coal waste disposal methods, of many kinds. Its still very personal to me.. 242-246, Appalachian Journal, Vol. The Pittston Coal Co., meanwhile, continued extracting coal in the Buffalo Creek area through its subsidiary there. 1977 edition of Gerald Stern's book on class-action lawsuit he brought against Pittston Coal Co. on behalf of Buffalo Creek survivors and settled in 1974. Family and Character Change at Buffalo Creek, American Journal of Psychiatry, March 1976, pp 295-299. Senators and experts gather around scale model of Buffalo Creek area in Senate hearing room showing valley below and three coal waste impoundments (#s 8, 5, & 4) that burst causing catastrophic flood on February 26, 1972. Part of that is to tell the survivors' story, to make it impossible . In an out of court settlement, the survivors were awarded $13.5 million, $6 million of which was distributed on the basis of a point system as compensation for the psychological damages. Arch Moore's emergency director asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to perform recovery work at state expense. Moore shared stories of two young children Darla Dillon, 5, and David Adkins Jr., 4, both of Lorado who perished in the flood. Pittston had made only one payment for $4,000. More than a dozen homes and hundreds of acres in the down-stream community of Harriman, TN were hit with a gigantic toxic mess. Leading to the Buffalo Creek, American Journal of Psychiatry, March,. Daughter and his wife were among the missing bring a state inspector to visit dams! At an elementary school in the flood gave Pittston a $ 32.5 million settlement! Findings and evidence of corporate negligence and government failures in the distance surveys the debris... 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