The Johnstown Flood Study Guide

The Johnstown Flood Plot Summary

Preview of The Johnstown Flood Summary:

The Johnstown Flood describes how on May 31, 1889, the earthen dam holding back Lake Conemaugh 15 miles upriver from Johnstown, PA, gives way in abnormally heavy spring rains, and a wall of water races down the valley, scraping away all trace of several small communities before destroying and drowning the populace of Johnstown in ten minutes. Relief operations begin immediately, involving the American Red Cross, and locals try unsuccessfully to blame a club of rich Pittsburghers who own the dam and lake. Most surviving Johnstownians return to rebuild their city and forget the terrible disaster.

Above Johnstown on Memorial Day, employees of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club prepare for the season under abnormally bad weather. Johnstown, PA, has an ethnically diverse population of 10,000, boasts modern amenities, and its working class population enjoys a good life, menaced by the threat of flooding should the 72-foot high South...
(read more)