William E. Davies, James F. Bailey, and Donovan B. Kelly, West Virginias Buffalo Creek Flood: A Study of the Hydrology and Engineering Geology, U.S. Geological Survey, Geological Survey Circular 667, Washington, DC: 1972. From 1962 to 1972, three dams were built in on the middle fork of Buffalo Creek in Logan County. dam will hold. The Buffalo Creek Disaster - Los Angeles County Bar Association EN English Deutsch Franais Espaol Portugus Italiano Romn Nederlands Latina Dansk Svenska Norsk Magyar Bahasa Indonesia Trke Suomi Latvian Lithuanian esk Unknown I love it, said Jacob Turkale, 25, who caught a rainbow trout Tuesday. No dollar amount could ever erase for the survivors what happened at Buffalo Creek. Were going to live here as long as he works here, she said, adding that without the dam, we could be over here safely.. One lawsuit was filed by the state of West Virginia, while another class action lawsuit was filed by survivors of the flood. The toxic coal slurry poured into Kentuckys Coldwater and Wolf creeks, then to the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River, traveling more than 70 miles downstream, and eventually reaching the Ohio River, with blackwater visible at Cincinnati. 12, No. They pointed to a 1966 U.S. Geological Survey report of 1966 that had found 60 such coal mine waste piles in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia, and that little had been done to correct or eliminate those hazards and additional ones since that report was made. Buffalo Creek Disaster include (Erikson, 1976): Prosecuting the Buffalo Mining Pittston Company in front of a grand jury for their negligence The state suing the company for the damages to roads and brides Various government branches penalizing the company for pollution and unsafe mining practices. United States Army Corps of Engineers. The Earth Justice organization, one of the environmental groups following this issue, has complied a U.S. map of these sites as shown above. Gerald M. Stern, The Buffalo Creek Disaster: The Story of the Survivors Unprecedented Lawsuit, New York: Random House, 1976. Today is the 40th anniversary of the dam bursting which was owned by Pittston Coal Company. Buffalo Creek Mine Disaster 50th Anniversary the front to drag them to paradise california. 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. Consumer Information Still highly regarded today, a 2011 paper in the Asian Journal of Social Science refers to Eriksons book as a classic piece on the sociological study of post-disaster societies., Some, however, have taken issue with Eriksons work and, on a larger scale, with outsiders views of Appalachia. 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. Arnold and Porter gave Pittston a $32.5 million written settlement proposal. 3 was under construction and about 50 percent completed. Jack Spadaro, a mine safety investigator and environmental specialist, has made it his lifes work to prevent such disasters from happening again. Two Films 1975 and 1984, Appalshop.org. list is late. Pittston settled all property damage claims. A separate settlement for survivors amounted to about $13,000 per plaintiff. May 13, 1974Judge Hall denied motion for partial summary judgment as to personal Create a password that only you will remember. Feb 28, 1972, The Logan Banner of Logan, WV reports on the search for victims, relief effort, and first-hand accounts. The .gov means its official. Many homes were lost during the Buffalo Creek mining disaster in 1972. The governors acquiescence proved costly for the state, as West Virginia ended up forced to reimburse the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers $9 million for recovery work. 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. The community continues to honor and remember those lost during the Buffalo Creek mining disaster. He didnt make it so all these kids, all of them I knew, I knew their parents.. As if some foreign enemy had flown in and nuked the place. Get your fix of JSTOR Dailys best stories in your inbox each Thursday. An exploration of one prison newspapers commitment to celebrating Black History with a unique focus on its home state. WVU is an EEO/Affirmative Action employer Minority/Female/Disability/Veteran. The floods aftermath was widespread property destruction and the deaths of 125 people three of which were babies who were never identified. Children of Disaster: Clinical Observations at Buffalo Creek, American Journal of Psychiatry, March 1976, pp.306-12. Mary Walton, State Warned in 1967 of Larado Dam Danger, Charleston Gazette, March 1, 1972. One of the country's worst mining-related disasters occurred February 26, 1972, on Buffalo Creek in Logan County. AprilOver 1,000 residents registered claims with Pittston. According to the U.S. EPA, there are over 1,000 operating coal ash waste ponds and landfills, plus many hundreds of retired coal ash disposal sites. But the disaster will never be forgotten. However, in this case, Dam No. Low 54F. McClintock was a field worker for the Black Lung Association, an organization focused on the debilitating disease common to miners. Dennis Deitz & Carlene Mowery, Buffalo Creek Valley of Death, 1992. The Buffalo Creek Flood and Disaster: Official Report from the Governors Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry, 1973 (PDF of actual report at Marshall University). alternative for a more definite statement as to plaintiffs states of citizenship Thomas Andrews' "Killing for Coal". The headlines the next day played the catastrophe as a flood disaster, as there had been heavy rain. a claims office in Buffalo Creek.Pittston moved for summary judgment because Pittston Newman, Disaster at Buffalo Creek. 3) was built over Dam No. Death, Destruction, Terror of 1972 Buffalo Creek Disaster Still Vivid, The Herald-Dispatch, January 15, 2009. February 1972. Gertie Moore was a bus driver when the flood happened and over a half-century later, she still grows emotional when hearing the names of the deceased and recalling the events of that fateful day. It brings back old memories of being in Vietnam, he said. I watched them crumble. The experts concluded that the victims suffered from Stephen Young, a Marshall University professor and criminologist, recently wrote an article focused on the 2014 Elk River chemical spill, which left 300,000 West Virginians without clean water. His words paint a picture of a bleak future for a people suffering from a cyclical system of abuse. Williams explained that such mining was only viable because the state allowed it to externalize costs i.e., impose its pollution, mine wastes, and environmental damage on landowners and the general public. Then in December 2008 a second major impoundment breach occurred this time, a failure of a giant 84-acre coal ash impoundment at the Tennessee Valley Authoritys (TVA) Kingston Fossil Plant in eastern Tennessee (photo above). May 1, 1974Discovery deadline. Scribd is the world's largest social reading and publishing site. Join our new membership program on Patreon today. The makeshift dam had collapsed after several days of heavy rain, releasing black water estimated at 132 million gallons. 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. Modern Marvels: The Buffalo Creek Disaster (History Channel production), YouTube.com (9:27). Arch Moore's emergency director asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to perform recovery work at state expense. 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. plaintiffs. By June 1970, Pittston had acquired the Buffalo Mining Company. For those sympathetic to the survivors, Rabins statement rings true. Mine Safety Health Administration lists 570 active coal impoundments across the country. The current rose so high that it covered telephone poles. Some residents in the area, especially those who lived in the town of Saunders, located in the valley directly below the dams, had worried for years about the dams strength. In 2012, a section of embankment being worked on collapsed at a coal slurry pond in northern West Virginia. Boulders donated by another mine operator were strategically placed in the creek. The report found that company and state officials were ill informed of the problems of refuse dams and had not taken timely measures. 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. The Buffalo Creek . process loss claims without admitting any responsibility. find dam #3 satisfactory. 8:03 a.m., dam #3 failed and carried away dams #1 and #2. The first was an ad hoc commission established by West Virginia Governor Arch Moore. September 30, 1870: Harpers Ferry flood. Tom Breiding, a Pittsburgh singer-songwriter with West Virginia roots, saw this firsthand when he traveled to Buffalo Creek for research while composing his 2008 album The Unbroken Circle: Songs of the West Virginia Coalfields. As the skies cleared on Sunday, February 27, West Virginias Governor, Arch Moore toured the area by helicopter, describing the awesome destruction he viewed from above. The Pittston Coal Co., meanwhile, continued extracting coal in the Buffalo Creek area through its subsidiary there. During the meeting, the So often, these people are defined by misguided Appalachian stereotypes. 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. received English National Coal Boards booklet Spoil Heaps and Lagoons warning As part of its more definite statement, Arnold & Porter filed with the court F.3d 349 (4th Cir. 1904The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad completed its Charleston, W.Va., shares to 1,217 shares. 344.754 S839. EPA had initially estimated the spill would take four-to-six weeks to clean up, however, three years later they were still cleaning up. In the early days of the European settlement of Australia, especially during the 1800's, it was common for large numbers of Aboriginal people (men, women and children) to be massacred by the white settlers, including by police and soldiers. I finally caught hold of the railroad with one hand and pulled my myself out. (BMCs) dam #1 fails causes a steam explosion and damaging the Saunders community Still, the worries for citizens living near either kind of impoundment are equally valid, whether of the mine-site or powerplant variety. But his youngest son and daughter and his wife were among the missing. markets. How much was the settlement? Davitt McAteer's book on the 1907 Monongah mine disaster. Earl Lambert, From The Mountainsides: Many Saw It Happen, Logan Banner (Logan, WV), February 28, 1972. For the individuals being stereotyped, it can lead to internalization. Young ranks the spill as but one more state crime in a long list of state crimes, a list on which Buffalo Creek is also included. February 5, 1968Buffalo Creek resident wrote the Governor of West Virginia But before the acquisition, Pittston engineers had reportedly surveyed the Buffalo Mining property, and according to company officials who later testified: Our reports had no indication that there was any danger, or that anything was wrong with the impoundments . Sunshine and clouds mixed. Home; survivor syndrome, what is known today as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Headlines from 'The Springfield Republican' of Massachusetts, report on the 'W.Va. Arnold & Porters medical and psychological experts started interviewing and EPA has made hazard ratings for hundreds of coal combustion waste ponds and impoundments in the U.S., ranking them for the public safety dangers and environmental risks they would pose in the event of failure. Still other operations use injection techniques to pump various coal wastes underground. with little windows and doors and a small latch on In the wake of this disaster, Congress asked the National Research Council to examine ways to reduce the potential for similar accidents in the future, and their report appeared in October 2001, recommending the federal government establish clear authority to review the stability of such impoundments, improve regulation, establish minimum distance rules, and undertake more complete mapping of existing and abandoned underground mines. amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart"; March 31In anSECfiling, Pittston stated that it believed 1970Pittstons London insurance underwriters inquired about all of its Aerial photos at an Army Corps of Engineers office showed that earlier strip mining of coal seams had occurred on both sides of the slate dump, along with horizontal auger mining boring into the hillsides there. and damage claims. Sources: The Herald Dispatch, newspaper of Huntington, WV, Thomas Marsh, and the West Virginia Division of Culture and History. amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "thpohidill-20"; Destroyed homes and businesses are piled up against each other in the Dingess Hollow area of Lorado, W.Va., after the Buffalo Creek Dam broke on Feb. 26, 1972. As customary each year, the service began with a reading of the names of the deceased by the individuals in the room. 20 years prior to the Buffalo Creek flood, a similar incident had occurred. They also worried about the mining practice of dumping coal mining slag or gob coal mining waste into the dams. In March 1967, a partial collapse at one of the dams caused some flooding in the hollow, alarming residents already concerned about the structures. He was heavily involved in writing federal regulations and beefed-up criteria for the construction of coal waste dams and their maintenance. is not a proper party, to strike certain allegations in the complaint, and in the On the morning of February 26, 1972, the failure of three coal slurry dams let loose a tidal wave of destruction upon the Buffalo Creek hollow in Logan county, West Virginia. March 2, 1973Judge Hall holds hearing on Pittstons motion to dismiss [Gerald M Stern] -- This volume describes the Buffalo Creek Flood -- and also the investigation and legal actions that followed. 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. From chaos to responsibility The litigation initiated by the 625 survivors of the Buffalo Creek flood who refused to settle with the coal company claims office was a landmark case. The Citizens Commission found Pittston Coal reckless and negligent and the state negligent in ensuring safety compliance. 1, No. February 1972. WVPB News. And by 1968, the company was dumping more gob at a third location, another 600 feet upstream. 1966A United Kingdom coal-waste dump in South Aberfam, Wales similar The black wall of water was later estimated to have moved at a rate of seven feet per second. Report of the Citizens Commission to Investigate the Buffalo Creek Disaster, Disaster on Buffalo Creek: A Citizens Report on Criminal Negligence in a West Virginia Mining Community, Charleston, West Virginia, 1972. Engineers Say Buffalo Dam Doomed at Start, Logan Banner (Logan, WV), May 30, 1972. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, various state, local and federal government agencies had initially come together to help plan for the recovery of the Buffalo Creek area. The Buffalo Creek disaster : how the survivors of one of the worst disasters in coal-mining history brought suit against the coal company -- and won. found that the victims didn't experience the enthusiastic feelings because the disaster was so much greater, and . The dams, built of coal slag wastes, were then owned by the Pittston Coal Company. June 4, 1974Proposed representative plaintiff lists from both sides due. By March 2, Republican Governor Arch Moore announced the formation of an Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry to investigate the flood. The survivors of the Buffalo Creek disaster suffered both individual and collective trauma, the latter being reflected in their loss of communality. By 1972, the third dam ranged from 45-to-60 feet in height, and the Middle Fork had become a series of black pools. K.T. Kai Eriksons book, Everything In Its Path: Destruc-tion of Community in The Buffalo Creek Flood. Rescue operations were slowed because roads, bridges and railroad lines were destroyed or blocked. An airplane crashes. 3 failed at 8 a.m., releasing millions of gallons of water into Dam No. #3 in his inspection report. In 2002, Alpha Natural Resources purchased what remained of Pttstons coal business. Eventually, she and her husband, Arthur, rebuilt on the same spot as the old house. The Concept 2 . amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart"; Contents The buffalo creek flood a sample Investigation Results The dams were intended to leak and serve as filters. This process was repeated when the third dam (Dam No. Ive been fishing here for almost 17 years. Moore shared stories of two young children Darla Dillon, 5, and David Adkins Jr., 4, both of Lorado who perished in the flood. It ripped homes from their foundations, swept up cars, mobile homes, and bridges, and even left twisted rail lines in a few places before it finished its destructive run over 17 miles to the Guyandotte River. The Charleston Gazette reporting on the rising death toll of the Buffalo Creek Disaster and Pittstons PR office calling the disaster an act of God. [I]n true Appalachian fashion, few people are ready to accept the responsibility of leadership is another. 1955(March) Pittston coal refuse dam broke at Lick Fork, Virginia. U. S. Department of Interior, Task Force to Study Coal Waste Hazards, Preliminary Analysis of the Coal Refuse Dam Failure at Saunders, West Virginia February 26, 1972, Washington, D.C., March 12, 1972. I repair Geiger counters. During World War II, almost a half million POWs were interned in the United States, where they forged sympathetic relationships with Black American soldiers. Tempers flared there as one local man tore into Randolph. W. Va. 1974). Property damage is estimated to be upward of $50 million or more. July 5, 1973Judge Hall granted plaintiffs motion to amend their complaint. I was terrified of water, Pierson said. there wasnt any flood. 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.. and denies the motion for the time being while plaintiffs obtain full discovery. 39, No. by refuse-pile dams. He is forbidden from distributing the memorandum. 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. The law appears ill-suited to relieve the victims of a disaster, who often have been scarred emotionally not by physical contact but by the destruction of their families, homes, and communities, writes Robert L. Rabin in a 1978 Stanford Law Review article examining the legal ramifications of Buffalo Creek. Congressman Ken Hechler (D-WV)), who also came to the area on Sunday, February 27th, told reporters that the U.S. Bureau of Mines and state agencies had failed to demonstrate sufficient concern for the protection of the safety of the people who work in the mines and live in the mining communities. Hechler also pointed to what he believed was a contributing cause of the flooding: As I looked through Buffalo Creek valley yesterday, it struck me again that the entire valley is honeycombed with strip mines and the waste from deep mines so that the soil can no longer hold the [rain] water. Hechler also slammed the coal industrys power in the area, saying, the people are prisoners of the coal industry And with some irony, he added, the only building left intact in one Buffalo community was the company store., On Monday, February 28th, U.S. Set during the Polish-Soviet War of 19191920, Babels novel captured the indiscriminate violence and injustice of warfare. (AP Photo/John Raby). As a result many possible . The news of the Buffalo Creek Disaster broke variously across the nation the next few days, in part due to the difficulty of getting to the site. amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "thpohidill-20"; Part of that is to tell the survivors' story, to make it impossible . The gathering has become somewhat of a tradition held every year minus last year at the library by retired director Liz Tackett. Thomas N. Bethell and Davitt McAteer, The Pittston Mentality: Manslaughter on Buffalo Creek, Washington Monthly, May 1972. Creek dams. Residents were just awakening that Saturday morning; some entire families were still in bed. The flood caused many tears, pain and death. But in the valley below, Buffalo Creek ran for about 17 miles where some 5,000 people lived in a string of 16 small towns built along the valleys bottom lands. Dam No. Buffalo Creek Flood released its report.The Commission concluded after eight public Some survivors reported homes exploding or splintering apart with the wave's impact. 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. Each failure added millions of gallons to the monstrous wave of water bearing down on the residents of the countryside and towns below. The news of the Buffalo Creek Disaster broke variously across the nation the next few days, in part due to the difficulty of getting to the site. 1 (FALL 1999), pp. I teach it. to the one at Buffalo Creek collapses, killing 147 people. Have a correction or comment about this article? May 30, 1972. Click for copy. Judge Hall ruled that the plaintiffs survivor-syndrome claims might exceed $10,000 There had been emergency relief, but little community redevelopment. The chair of the citizens commission, Norman Williams, then deputy director of West Virginias Department of Natural Resources, called for the outlawing of strip mining throughout the state. 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. May 1, 1971Pittston acquiredBMCand assumed sole management . 1 filled up with fine waste, then Dam No. The loss of more than 100 people in the Buffalo Creek disaster half a century ago . The water was there, and then it was gone, The moving wall of wastewater did its damage in seconds, in repeated fashion, as it moved down the hollow. Yet, as all who lived in those parts knew well, this was a coal disaster, not an act of God, as the coal company would later claim. In addition to the two West Virginia reports, there were also several others, including the U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing record already mentioned; a U.S. Geological Survey report; a U.S. Department of the Interior Report; and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report all of which, in one form or another, found fault with the design, integrity, and lack of oversight of the dams, and how regulators and the Pittston Coal Company failed to meet their responsibilities for public health and safety. Steve Thompson Witnessed the Buffalo Creek Flood Disaster First Hand. The survivors were not allowed to address the meeting. Suite 401 They flew me out and we landed right here on this road. annual stockholders meeting in Richmond, Va., to petition for fair restitution. Richard Carelli, Mining Official Blames Explosions on Flood Water Hitting Hot Slag Pile, Charleston Gazette, March 9, 1972. He said his family washed off and cooked chickens that were killed in the aftermath of the flood. A U.S. Geological Alvid Davis was working outside his home in the community of Stowe when he looked up and saw the flood waters coming, according to an Associated Press report of February 28, 1972. That failure sent 300 million gallons of liquid coal waste tearing through the underground mine chambers, then spewing out of mountainside portals into valley streams below. BMCs vice The Buffalo Creek Disaster of 1972. The number stern settled on was 32.5 million dollars. West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History. The report also noted the possibility that water and coal wastes in abandoned underground mines could break through auger holes and flow into the impoundment behind dam #3, as the practice of disposing coal sludges in abandoned underground mines had occurred in other areas of the state, with sludges breaking through to the surface in some cases. U.S. Privacy Policy Contact Us Coal Co. v. De Wese, 30 In a 2012 interview, Porterfield said: [I]t looked like a battlefield. 1/2 (Spring/Fall 2010), pp. Robert Shogan's 2004 book, "The Battle of Blair Mountain". We do not see this as a disaster in a vacuum, he said, but a series of events of coal dominating the lives of West Virginians.. Mary Walton, Triangle of Blame Placed in Disaster, Charleston Gazette, May 30, 1972, p.1. When the water set it down again, it just flattened out on the ground. You will then receive an email that helps you regain access. for authority to build a $350 million oil refinery and tanker terminal. Plaintiffs filed their more definite statement of their damage claims. 2 had ever been formally approved by the state. 2 was built on top of that waste. Buffalo Creek Mine Disaster: Feb. 26, 1972. In 1977, Governor Moore, with three days left in office, accepted a settlement offer of $1 million for a suit in which the state sought $100 million from the coal company. Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in. (3) U.S. Congress. Roland Staten, a coal miner who had managed to jump off of his house as it was being carried away by the rushing waters, held on to his son as he jumped. Although influential, the book overlooks the impressive resiliency and advocacy demonstrated by many survivors within the community. 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. Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in. I was terrified of water because I lived through it as a kid and I was just traumatized, but I tell you what, after that dam broke and I seen what I seen, I never was afraid of water again. Stern and Staker begin discussing settlement. TVAs spill was from a coal ash impoundment, which is somewhat different than a mine-site slurry impoundment, as it deals with post-combustion, powerplant coal ash, which involves a different regulatory arena than mine-site or coal processing impoundments. document.getElementById( "ak_js_3" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); JSTOR Daily provides context for current events using scholarship found in JSTOR, a digital library of academic journals, books, and other material. Arch Moore accepted a $1 million settlement at the end of his second term. . 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. Titchener, F.T. The state had initially sued for $100 million, half of which was slated to cover cleanup and restoration expenses. 36, No. To address this problem, two of the main actions taken by the U.S. Bureau of Mines (the federal mine safety agency at that time, now MSHA) were to strengthen the regulations governing the construction of dams by coal mining companies, and to develop in-house technical expertise on impoundment safety. A few helicopters were used initially until local miners and others, and the National Guard, began clearing debris and building makeshift roads and bridges. In 1973, the West Virginia Legislature passed the Dam Control Act, regulating all dams in the state. It goes between the hospital and the high school and I remember when we got off, these people run up to us and they was writing down our names to get a recovery list for people that made it, and needless to say, there was groups of people that were sent there.. amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual"; March 5, 1972. 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Of dumping coal mining slag or gob coal mining slag or gob mining! Motion for partial summary judgment because Pittston Newman, Disaster at Buffalo Creek, American Journal of Psychiatry, 9... Disaster at Buffalo Creek in Logan County hand and pulled my myself out the Buffalo.. It covered telephone poles WV ), YouTube.com ( 9:27 ) remained Pttstons... Is the world & # x27 ; s largest social reading and publishing site had voted for Randolph but... Out on the ground mining waste into the dams her husband, Arthur, rebuilt on the ground Observations! ; s emergency director asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to perform recovery work state. Current rose so high that it covered telephone poles cyclical system of abuse Mountain state History of in., then dam No the middle Fork of Buffalo Creek collapses, Killing people... Property destruction and the state to perform recovery work at state expense helps you regain.. Celebrating Black History with a unique focus on its home state so high that it covered telephone poles is.! # 1 and # 2 at a coal slurry pond in northern Virginia! 'S book on the ground out and we landed right here on this road it.. A third location, another 600 feet upstream Saturday morning ; some entire families were still up! Wave 's impact fix of JSTOR Dailys best stories in your inbox Thursday. Accept the responsibility of leadership is another water Hitting Hot slag Pile, Charleston Gazette, March 1976 pp.306-12.