On 31 May 1889, more than two thousand people perished when a dam break sent water rushing through Johnstown, Pennsylvania (photo, post-flood). There have been multiple large floods since then, in 1894, 1907, 1924, and 1936. Following the 1936 flood, the Corps of Engineers dredged the river within the city and built concrete rivers walls, creating a channel nearly twenty feet deep and, upon completion, proclaimed Johnstown "flood free". The new river walls withstood Hurricane Agnes in 1972 but, on the night of 19 July 1977, a severe thunderstorm dropped eleven inches of rain in eight hours on the watershed above the city, and the rivers began to rise. By dawn, the city was under eight feet of water. Seven counties were declared a disaster area, suffering two hundred million dollars in property damage, and nearly eighty people died.
Rico says that, besides redefining 'hubris' (which the
Corps is famous for) all this indicates that they didn't learn their lesson...
No comments:
Post a Comment