Help us keep publishing stories that provide scholarly context to the news. flagrant disregard for the safety of residents of Buffalo Creek and other persons On Saturday, the community showed they are still standing with a room full of survivors coming . amzn_assoc_region = "US"; The Buffalo Creek (W.Va.) flood is one of the most extensively examined and longest followed disasters in the psychiatric study of trauma. 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. Why Theyve Got West Virginians Worried, YesMagazine.org, April 23, 2015. I love it, said Jacob Turkale, 25, who caught a rainbow trout Tuesday. spillway on Dam #3. And people die. Tort Law: The Buffalo Creek Disaster; Tort Law: The Buffalo Creek Disaster . Actual death toll would be 125, nearly twice early reports. survivor syndrome, what is known today as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Many coal waste impoundments had to be either modified or closed to eliminate hazardous conditions. 302-305. One thing that really impressed me, though, was there was no immediate display of emotion, Porterfield said, remembering the survivors. More than a dozen homes and hundreds of acres in the down-stream community of Harriman, TN were hit with a gigantic toxic mess. Thomas Andrews' "Killing for Coal". Young draws parallels between Appalachia and the colonialist exploitation of Third World countries, as well as the exploitation of communities of color, such as Flint, Michigan. Since the impoundment regulations were implemented in 1975, there have been no incidents of dam failures at coal waste impoundments. As customary each year, the service began with a reading of the names of the deceased by the individuals in the room. Have a correction or comment about this article? Immediately following the failure at Buffalo Creek, representatives from the Bureau of Mines and the U.S. Geological Survey formed a task force to study coal waste hazards. June 7, 1974Judge Hall declined to act on Pittstons motion to dismiss plaintiffs 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. (AP Photo/John Raby). Article Citation: Ive been fishing here for almost 17 years. If your house burned down, youve still got your neighbors. Less than a year later, in February 1971, 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. amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon"; Scholarship on the disaster also helps us get to know the peoplethe victims, the survivorsinvolved. (BMCs) dam #1 fails causes a steam explosion and damaging the Saunders community Arnold and Porter noticed Pittstons president and vice-presidents depositions Judge Hall ruled that the plaintiffs survivor-syndrome claims might exceed $10,000 Property damage is estimated to be upward of $50 million or more. BMCfilled the hole with more coal refuse. Click for copy. In 1977, Gov. process loss claims without admitting any responsibility. Three coal waste dams in West Virginia failed, killing 125 people and injuring 1,100 more in communities downstream of the dams. Newman, Disaster at Buffalo Creek. 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 . Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles. In February 1968, Saunders resident Mrs. Pearl Woodrum wrote a letter of complaint to then Governor Hulett Smith saying in effect, the dams were unsafe. John G. Morgan, Angered Citizens Plan Own Logan Flood Probe, Charleston Gazette, March 7, 1972. I didnt have no fear for water, Id just jump right in any lake or river and swim. Were going to live here as long as he works here, she said, adding that without the dam, we could be over here safely.. shares to 1,217 shares. Miles away, a coal companys hillside impoundment dams collapsed, sending slurry thundering downhill and into the hollow, inundating small communities and killing 125 people. Field Foundation proposed a resolution that Pittston should spend more money to Refuse Dumps at Coal Mines, discouraging the use of coal refuse dumps as dams. The only warning we had was just a neighbor woman had spotted it and just pulled in front of our house and hollered, Run, the dam has broke! remembered survivor Shirley Marcum. 3 failed. amzn_assoc_region = "US"; 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. 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.. 3 above its impounded sediment. 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. (WCHS) MAN, W.Va. (WCHS) . BMCthen builds dam #2. As of 1987, Pittston was still among the ten largest coal companies in the U.S. Plaintiffs filed their more definite statement of their damage claims. Each of the plaintiffs ended up with about $13,000. Last month the Environmental Protection Agency ordered utilities to stop dumping waste into unlined storage ponds and speed up plans to close leaking or otherwise dangerous coal ash sites. Buffalo Creek Disaster is not just about heroes but a dramatic tale that involves the loss of lives and property and the legal war containing a litigation drama that resulted in the payment of the settlement. Associated Press, Pittstons Federal Flood Suit Settled Out of Court, Bluefield Daily Telegraph (Bluefield, WV), July 6, 1974, p. 1. himself from the case because of his friendship with Pittstons president. Low 54F. If a person is so often treated as trash, they may come to believe they are nothing but trash. By March 2, Republican Governor Arch Moore announced the formation of an Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry to investigate the flood. Beyond coal, and headquartered in New York City, Pittston had other diverse holdings an oil company, a large trucking firm, the Brinks armored car company, and forty percent of the warehouses in New York City. At approximately 8 a.m. on Feb. 26, 1972, a man-made coal slurry impoundment dam, which was operated by the Pittston Coal Company, burst following a prolonged period of heavy rainfall. As a result many possible . And for the survivors of the Buffalo Creek Disaster, there was little real recovery. U.S. WVPB News. 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. . 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. The state filed a $100 million lawsuit against mine owner Pittston Coal; then-Gov. What was the settlement in the Buffalo Creek disaster? With little warning to residents, more than 130 million gallons of dark floodwaters tore through more than a dozen communities in the hollow. 1945The Lorado Coal Company opened a coal mine at Buffalo Creek and began Chronology of a Disaster, BuffaloCreek Flood.org. (the diversity amount-in-controversy amount at the time). Ben A. Franklin, New York Times News Service, Dam Failures Common: Whos Liable for Flooding, Charleston Gazette, February 28, 1972. The state had initially sued for $100 million, half of which was slated to cover cleanup and restoration expenses. 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. Click for copy. Dam Break'. a federal safety standard prohibiting refuse piles from impeding drainage or impounding 2 was built on top of that waste. Modern Marvels: The Buffalo Creek Disaster (History Channel production), YouTube.com (9:27). 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. Survivor Tim Hall, a Lundale native who now lives at Mud Fork near Logan, said the flood was worse than any other disaster because of the destruction it caused. Downstream, the coal wastewater theoretically filtered through the dams would then emerge in a cleaner state in Buffalo Creek and beyond. The Citizens Commission found Pittston Coal reckless and negligent and the state negligent in ensuring safety compliance. 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.. 242-246, Appalachian Journal, Vol. Were owned by the coal company. ensued. September 2, 1972West Virginia Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry into the 22-45, Appalachian Journal and Appalachian State University, Social Justice, Vol. Fact stipulations, exhibit lists, and pretrial Click for copy. Is the unique Appalachian dialect the preserved language of Elizabethan England? Among those pressing for action in Washington was consumer advocate Ralph Nader, well known by then for taking on politicians and corporations. who live near coal-refuse impoundments.. Map Feature: Coal Ash Contaminated Sites & Hazard Dams (U.S.), EarthJustice.org. At the outset of the hearing, Fuquay was the first witness, and the subcommittee chairman, Senator Harrison Williams (D-NJ), submitted for inclusion in the hearing record, Fuquays 225-page report, titled An Engineering Survey of Representative Coal Mine Refuse Piles as Related to the Buffalo Creek, West Virginia, Disaster. That two-part report, focusing on the failed Buffalo Creek dams and a sampling of other dangerous coal refuse dams in the region, made headlines in a few places on May 30th, 1972, the day the Senate hearings began. The U.S. And by 1968, the company was dumping more gob at a third location, another 600 feet upstream. Buffalo Creek Mine Disaster 50th Anniversary JSTOR Daily readers can access the original research behind our articles for free on JSTOR. Depta writes: Theyre bringing in trailers so the next time theres a 1942Buchanan County coal refuse pile explosion covered the railroad tracks Nader commented, shortly after the flood, that 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. Note that Nader did not mince words, labelling the event a massacre.. The sociologist Kai Erikson was brought in for the latter suit as an expert witness on behalf of the survivors. 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. In 2002, Alpha Natural Resources purchased what remained of Pttstons coal business. Fuquay would also conduct an early field analysis of what happened there. Sunshine and clouds mixed. Thats the year we really got cranked up, Harvey said. 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 . Thanks for visiting and if you like what you find here, please make a donation to help support the research and writing at this website. July 1971Pittstons vice-president of industrial engineering and training All we had was the clothes on our backs and I prep, I put back not a lot of food, but as much as Janet (his wife) will let me, and I prepare for nuclear war. Pierson said he was flown out by helicopter. 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. 3 failed at 8 a.m., releasing millions of gallons of water into Dam 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. 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. problems with implementation. In addition to the deaths, the disaster injured 1,100 and left more than 4,000 people homeless. (plus appendices, vol. The tautly-worded 31-page report offered detailed findings and evidence of corporate negligence and government failures in the disaster, and proposed 21 recommendations. June 12, 1964Buffalo Mining Company (BMC) incorporated. Support JSTOR Daily! As the wave moved down the mountain valley it wiped out much of what stood in its path. 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. Its worth noting that, following Buffalo Creek, two commissions were launched. 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. 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. 1,121 individuals were injured over 4,000 of Buffalo Creeks approximately 5,000 residents were immediately rendered homeless. 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. State officials requested a few minor alterations to the impoundment. Access from your area has been temporarily limited for security reasons. Kai Eriksons book, Everything In Its Path: Destruc-tion of Community in The Buffalo Creek Flood. They just had this blank stare of resignation One of my co-workers said people in those coal communities are used to being battered by this and that. Leading off the testimony before the Senate Subcommittee was Garth Fuquay of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (shown in above photo), who had been detailed to the subcommittee to help guide the committee in its investigation. The flood caused many tears, pain and death. In March 1967, a partial collapse at one of the dams caused some flooding in the hollow, alarming residents already concerned about the structures. Logan Flood Toll 66; 400 Missing, Hundreds Search Disaster Area; Cause of Break Gets Attention, Charleston Daily Mail, February 28, 1972. 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