Last updated: February 22, 2024
Place
In the Lakebed
NPS
Despite the efforts to stabilize and save the South Fork Dam on the morning of May 31, 1889, the water continued to rise until at 11:00 am, the water was level with the top of the dam. Colonel Unger had called off the operation to save it. Now all of those who were gathered: Club employees, the Italian workmen, and locals from South Fork, watched and waited, hoping that those on down the valley could get out of the way.
Between 12:00 pm and 1:00 pm, the water started to go over the top of the dam. It ate a notch into the face, until it totally failed at 3:10 pm. Colonel Unger said, ‘Oh, it seemed to me as if all the destructive elements of the Creator had been turned loose at once in the awful current of water.’ The wave struck Johnstown at 4:07 pm. The flood wave was 35-40 feet high when it struck the city.
Ninety-nine entire families were lost. One-hundred-twenty-four women lost their husbands. One-hundred-ninety-eight men lost their wives. Three hundred ninety six children under the age of 10 died. Five-hundred-and-sixty-eight children lost one or both parents. Altogether, there was $17,000,000 in property damage. The official death toll was 2,209, but as one survivor said, it will be impossible to ever know for certain how many people died in the Johnstown Flood.
Between 12:00 pm and 1:00 pm, the water started to go over the top of the dam. It ate a notch into the face, until it totally failed at 3:10 pm. Colonel Unger said, ‘Oh, it seemed to me as if all the destructive elements of the Creator had been turned loose at once in the awful current of water.’ The wave struck Johnstown at 4:07 pm. The flood wave was 35-40 feet high when it struck the city.
Ninety-nine entire families were lost. One-hundred-twenty-four women lost their husbands. One-hundred-ninety-eight men lost their wives. Three hundred ninety six children under the age of 10 died. Five-hundred-and-sixty-eight children lost one or both parents. Altogether, there was $17,000,000 in property damage. The official death toll was 2,209, but as one survivor said, it will be impossible to ever know for certain how many people died in the Johnstown Flood.