And for the survivors of the Buffalo Creek Disaster, there was little real recovery. Craig Ammerman, Eight More Bodies Found; Logan Flood Toll Climbs to 84, Charleston Gazette, March 3, 1972. One resident had even written to the governor a few years earlier saying if something wasnt done about the dams, were all going to be washed away., We saw the water lift up our house. 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. 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. The number stern settled on was 32.5 million dollars. For those sympathetic to the survivors, Rabins statement rings true. A Pittston Coal Group decal sticker listing some of the company's mining locations in the VA-WV area. Stern met with plaintiffs and obtained settlement authority. However, he did question the ability of the overflow pipes in Dam No. But the company challenged each of the violations and paid only $275 of the $1.3 million in fines originally proposed. 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. 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. Rescue operations were slowed because roads, bridges and railroad lines were destroyed or blocked. Click for copy. Although the Governors Commission had referred the case to the Logan County, West Virginia prosecutor for possible legal action against Pittston Coal Company and its subsidiary, nothing came of it. Debris was everywhere. the front to drag them to paradise california. amzn_assoc_title = "Additional Reading"; February 1972. amzn_assoc_title = "Related Books & DVD"; were provided to Stern. The Buffalo Creek Flood and Disaster: Official Report from the Governor's Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry. With little warning to residents, more than 130 million gallons of dark floodwaters tore through more than a dozen communities in the hollow. The other, David Adkins Jr., he was the same age five he hadnt started school either, but every evening, he was out and back then, they put braces in a fence and hed sit right in that brace and hed watch that bus every evening like he was saying, Next year, Im going to ride that bus. He didnt make it. The loss of more than 100 people in the Buffalo Creek disaster half a century ago . It should be widely read, states a 1978 review in the Journal of American Studies: In all its aspectsthe survivors description of the flood and its consequences, the contribution which it makes to an understanding of Appalachian life and to the study of disasters, and its theoretical suggestivenessit is outstanding. The Buffalo Creek disaster is the best example of a tragedy centered on environmental injustice where the minority ethnic groups and low . I didnt want to drown. [Gerald M Stern] -- This volume describes the Buffalo Creek Flood -- and also the investigation and legal actions that followed. I saw my neighbors houses leave. Events Leading To The Buffalo Creek Disaster, BuffaloCreekFlood.org. July 3, 1974Plaintiffs/Pittston $13.5 million settlement agreement filed with from [any] overflow from the lake.. They relate the story of a group of survivors who formed their own support group without outside help. Like Kalgan mentions these cases sometimes end up "spending more money on litigation costs than on payments that end up in injured plaintiffs pockets" (Kagan, 138). ensued. The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act Of Man, Transcript (undated). regulations forbid the closing off of any stream or the impoundment of water One newspaper, reporting on the study and the Senate hearings, used the headlines Army Corps of Engineers Says Dam Doomed From Start (below). Still, the reported number of dead and missing varied with each days news reports, a reflection of the difficulty in finding and identifying bodies in the aftermath. and submitted other discovery requests to Pittston. Film Clip, The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act Of Man, YouTube.com (8:22), February 20, 2012. April 30, 1974Plaintiffs amended their complaint. Disaster at Buffalo Creek Health and safety engineer Jack Spadaro was teaching at West Virginia University when the disaster occurred. and highway, demolished seven houses, killed six people, and injured four. The Pittston Coal Co., meanwhile, continued extracting coal in the Buffalo Creek area through its subsidiary there. Creek dams. Recent history suggests that a number of these facilities and practices hold public safety risks and/or environmental threats. 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. UPI, Buffalo Creek Flood Inquiry [i.e., special grand jury] Is Off Until After Election, New York Times, September 13, 1972. This mining activity, though in the past, had stripped away the water-absorbing forest undergrowth, thus increasing surface run-off during heavy precipitation. 1 (Apr., 1978), pp. Engineering, Not Rainfall, Given Blame, Logan Banner, March 9, 1972. February 28, 1972. Kapp, Disaster at Buffalo Creek. The state sued the company for $100,000,000 dollars but then Gov. Your e-mail address will be used to confirm your account. 242-246, Appalachian Journal, Vol. 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. Moore shared stories of two young children Darla Dillon, 5, and David Adkins Jr., 4, both of Lorado who perished in the flood. Volunteers picked up trash around the creek. 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. Stern and Staker begin discussing settlement. Click for copy. Jack Doyle, "Buffalo Creek Disaster: 1972,"PopHistoryDig, January 31, 2019. wvculture/history/buffcreek . William Rhee, Associate Professor of Law, West Virginia University, The Buffalo Creek Timeline, WVU.edu, updated on December 30, 2015. Join our new membership program on Patreon today. Residents were just awakening that Saturday morning; some entire families were still in bed. Ralph Nader letter to Congressional committees raises dangers of coal dams. document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Mannix Porterfield, a reporter who covered the events of that tragic day, later recalled the destruction left in the floods wake. .. The Buffalo Creek Flood and Disaster: Official Report from the Governors Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry, 1973 (PDF of actual report at Marshall University). The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely. Senator Jennings Randolph (D-WV) visited Man High School, a temporary refugee location for Buffalo Creek survivors. And then you could hear the roar of it and you could see it. Pittston by then had developed a reputation for poor safety practices, and was ranked second nationally in the number of fatal and non-fatal mine accidents. Gerald M. Stern, The Buffalo Creek Disaster: The Story of the Survivors Unprecedented Lawsuit, New York: Random House, 1976. Three coal waste dams in West Virginia failed, killing 125 people and injuring 1,100 more in communities downstream of the dams. Another survivor and eye witness recounted what he saw to a Logan Banner reporter: It was throwing houses around like matchstems and it was picking up cars like they were eggshells, Two other witnesses reported to the Logan Banner that they saw bodies getting hung in trees The water was black and it was carrying homes and timber Another man added: I just didnt believe I would see that much water and houses floating down the creek. ITHAKA. Its not even past.. 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. Depta recalls the trailers brought in by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to set up temporary living for the newly homeless. On Saturday, victims were being remembered at the same high school that served as a temporary morgue 50 years ago. 1955(March) Pittston coal refuse dam broke at Lick Fork, Virginia. found that the victims didn't experience the enthusiastic feelings because the disaster was so much greater, and . They lost loved ones, their homes, their neighbors, their community. Downstream, the coal wastewater theoretically filtered through the dams would then emerge in a cleaner state in Buffalo Creek and beyond. You may unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the provided link on any marketing message. Kai Eriksons book, Everything In Its Path: Destruc-tion of Community in The Buffalo Creek Flood. 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). The Citizens report also noted that strip mining above the dam had likely contributed to its over-filling. Map of Buffalo Creek communities in 1972 shown with disaster summary inset. But following a bitter labor strike in 1989, and the declining profitability of its minerals division throughout the 1990s, Pittston began to wind down its coal operations. We publish articles grounded in peer-reviewed research and provide free access to that research for all of our readers. 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. How much was the settlement? Many coal waste impoundments had to be either modified or closed to eliminate hazardous conditions. AprilOver 1,000 residents registered claims with Pittston. but then Gov. Out of the total settlement, Arnold and Porter took a legal fee of $3 million. 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. 1912The C&O Railroad build the first spur line by Buffalo Creek. 51 years later, memories still haunt survivors of Buffalo Creek flood. An airplane crashes. Headlines from an Associated Press story reporting that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers -- also testifying at U.S. Senate hearings -- found the the Pittston Coal Co. dam above Buffalo Creek was "doomed from the start.". Set during the Polish-Soviet War of 19191920, Babels novel captured the indiscriminate violence and injustice of warfare. At one point, West Virginia Governor Arch Moore, complaining that the states image was getting a bad rap from the media, closed the Buffalo Creek area to reporters. A number of leaks and smaller spills have also occurred. amzn_assoc_search_bar = "true"; Ben A. Franklin, New York Times News Service, Dam Failures Common: Whos Liable for Flooding, Charleston Gazette, February 28, 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. United States Army Corps of Engineers. The Senate subcommittee would later issue some three volumes of material and by June 1972 would call for new legislation to prevent disasters like Buffalo Creek, offering a Mined Area Protection Bill, a measure, however, that would not be adopted. Ive been fishing here for almost 17 years. there wasnt any flood. Journal of Appalachian Studies, Vol. Logan County West Virginia Man, 1997. It just broke your heart to see firsthand the devastation that water could do, he would tell a Herald Dispatch reporter. They looked like huge metallic pretzels. 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. A wave from the waste dam flooded and destroyed the Buffalo Creek community [2]. On February 26, 1972, tragedy struck a small mining community in the coalfields of southern West Virginia. Click for copy. should not be material in relation to [Pittstons] consolidated financial position.. Earl Lambert, From The Mountainsides: Many Saw It Happen, Logan Banner (Logan, WV), February 28, 1972. 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. West Virginia has the most with 108. Ben A. Franklin, Flood Survivors Sue Mine Concern; Plaintiffs Ask $64-Million Seek Damages Over Survivor Syndrome; 800 Pages of Testimony; A Sound Like Thunder, New York Times, April 18, 1973. Buffalo Creek Disaster 1. Rebecca Bailey's 2008 book, "Matewan: Before The Massacre". September 2, 1972West Virginia Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry into the Were owned by the coal company. MAN - Monday marked the 46th anniversary of the Buffalo Creek Flood. It would just go from one hillside to the other. Pittston Quits the Coal Business, Buffalo CreekFlood.org. Court to make the plaintiffs state their dollar damage claims with more particularity. So often, these people are defined by misguided Appalachian stereotypes. If a person is so often treated as trash, they may come to believe they are nothing but trash. Thank you. Your access to this service has been limited. One lawsuit was filed by the state of West Virginia, while another class action lawsuit was filed by survivors of the flood. Buffalo Creek Disaster Gerald M. Stern 3.68 2,196 ratings176 reviews 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 water, sludge, and debris crashing into southern West Virginia's Buffalo Creek hollow. Robert Shogan's 2004 book, "The Battle of Blair Mountain". April 16, 1973Plaintiffs moved to amend their complaint to add additional Before that, I was terrified.. The moving wall of wastewater did its damage in seconds, in repeated fashion, as it moved down the hollow. The dams themselves were certainly not state-of-the-art construction. Jack Doyle, Date Posted: 31 January 2019 As the wave moved down the mountain valley it wiped out much of what stood in its path. Wallace Adkins of Robinette, tried to escape the on-rushing wall of water by loading up his family car. The Citizens Commission found Pittston Coal reckless and negligent and the state negligent in ensuring safety compliance. July 14, 1970West Virginia Department of Natural Resources (WVDNR) Inspector Published opinion, Am. Suite 401 Pittston Arnold and Porter gave Pittston a $32.5 million written settlement proposal. Stern describes victims losing family members before their eyes, and the devastation caused by the flood. and made decisions on future trial structure. For decades after that, fishing of any kind was no longer an option on the southern West Virginia waterway. Death, Destruction, Terror of 1972 Buffalo Creek Disaster Still Vivid, The Herald-Dispatch, January 15, 2009. Nothing is the same around this place. 79-100. In eastern Kentucky in 2000, the bottom of a coal impoundment ruptured into an abandoned underground mine, flooding two streams and poisoning a water supply. (Rockefeller would later be elected governor and U.S. 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. to let the plaintiffs see Pittstons insurance documents and refused to keep Mimi Pickering, my wife, made two documentary films about the disaster. December 2008. 28 (S.D. The state then cited Pittston for violations but failed to follow up with inspections. One of the country's worst mining-related disasters occurred February 26, 1972, on Buffalo Creek in Logan County. Gallery: The Buffalo Creek Flood, Herald-Dispatch.com, February 26, 2014. 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. Today is the 49th anniversary of one of the worst mining catastrophes in West Virginia history, the Buffalo Creek Disaster. 2 (Spring 1973), pp. In 1973, the West Virginia Legislature passed the Dam Control Act, regulating all dams in the state. The Pittston Company: Company Profile & History, ReferenceForBusiness.com. More than 100 people died in southern West Virginia when a dam failed. Initial Settlement Proposal (Buffalo Creek) and Pittston's First Counter Offer - Stern wanted 32.5 mil (people would've been happy with 10.5 mil) - Pittston came back with 3 mil offer . February 28Pittston employee distributes warning memorandum previously November 7, 1980: Ferrell coal mine disaster. Pittston had made only one payment for $4,000. Buy Now. Field Foundation proposed a resolution that Pittston should spend more money to 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. October 5, 1973Plaintiffs filed supplemental more definite statement May 30, 1972. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Headlines of the 'Charleston Daily Mail' of Charleston, WV reporting early death toll of 66 people killed during the Buffalo Creek flood disaster, the result of a giant coal waste wall of water from failed gob dams high in the hills upstream, also showing houses tossed about in the ravaged watershed. Eriksons book was a finalist for the National Book Award the year of its release. But $27 million in flood emergency funds was used in 1975 to build a highway that really went nowhere, except to the coal tipples at the head of Buffalo Creek. buffalo creek disaster 1 - Free download as Word Doc (.doc / .docx), PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online for free. two telephone books worth of victim statements. Many homes were lost during the Buffalo Creek mining disaster in 1972. In the last week of his second term in 1977, Moore accepted a $1 million payment from Pittston Coal Company to settle accounts from the Buffalo Creek Disaster. Hearing before the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs United States Senate July 20, 1972. its motion to dismiss. Rescue operations and accurate reporting of the dead and missing were made difficult by the fact that access to the area by road had been wiped out, with bridges destroyed and rail lines blocked or flooded. November 14, 1970: Marshall University football team killed in plane crash. protect miners and their families. June 12, 1964Buffalo Mining Company (BMC) incorporated. Theres also the risk of environmental damage from coal ash, the toxic wastewater left over from burning coal at power plants. Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. Although influential, the book overlooks the impressive resiliency and advocacy demonstrated by many survivors within the community. find dam #3 satisfactory. Three coal waste dams in West Virginia failed, killing 125 people and injuring 1,100 more in communities downstream of the dams. 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. Buffalo Creek Flood released its report.The Commission concluded after eight public 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. President Richard Nixon, then in China, had contacted Moore by phone to promise Federal disaster aid. amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon"; When the water set it down again, it just flattened out on the ground. The first coal mining in the Buffalo Creek watershed dated to the 1910s when a few coal camps small mining towns sprang up following the first rail lines into the area to exploit the coal there. You will then receive an email that helps you regain access. The current rose so high that it covered telephone poles. I go to fire departments and teach about nuclear fallout. Some 208 of these coal combustion waste sites are known to have contaminated groundwater, wetlands, and/or rivers. Judge Hall ruled that the plaintiffs survivor-syndrome claims might exceed $10,000 The Buffalo Creek Flood and Disaster: Official Report From the Governors Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry, 1973 (as posted at: wvculture.org). dumping coal refuse into the mouth of Middle Fork hollow. They were filled to capacity, holding tons of coal wastewater. It would go this way on this side of the hill and take a house out; take one house out of all the rows, and then go back the other way. Vicki Smith, Feds OK Coal Slurry Dam Expansion, GazetteMail.com, March 25, 2013. amzn_assoc_linkid = "97ba3d2dfe21cb80a887e1d63f028ef6"; Associated Press, 37 Killed as Flood Sweeps A Valley in West Virginia, New York Times, Sunday, February 27, 1972, p. 1. On February 26, 1972 the Buffalo creek community was destroyed by a terrible flood. received English National Coal Boards booklet Spoil Heaps and Lagoons warning Half of its downstream side slumped but Youve still got your church. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. The Buffalo Creek Disaster: The Story of the Survivors . Davis managed to rescue two of his sons, and his neighbors helped pull his 17-year-old daughter from the waters two miles down the hollow. One of the country's worst mining-related disasters occurred February 26, 1972, on Buffalo Creek in Logan County. I repair Geiger counters. 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. Pierson said the flood had a rather unique impact on him it caused him to conquer his fear of water. The spill covered the surrounding land with up to six feet of sludge. Richard Martin's 2015 book, "Coal Wars". (3) U.S. Congress. 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