Buffalo Creek Flood

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Aerial View of Buffalo Creek area taken the day after impoundment dam #3 failed.
Aerial View of Buffalo Creek area taken the day after impoundment dam #3 failed.

The Buffalo Creek Flood was an incident that occurred on February 26, 1972 when a coal slurry impoundment dam #3 on a hillside in Logan County, West Virginia by the Pittston Coal Company burst four days after having been declared 'satisfactory' by a federal mine inspector.[1] The resulting flood unleashed approximately 132 million gallons (500,000,000 L) of black waste water upon the residents of 16 coal mining communities in Buffalo Creek Hollow. Out of a population of 5,000 people, 125 people were killed, 1,121 were injured, and over 4,000 were left homeless. 507 houses were destroyed, in addition to forty-four mobile homes and 30 businesses.[1] The incident completely leveled the town of Saunders, W.V. (the current town of Saunders is not the same one that once was located in Buffalo Creek).

Some 625 survivors of the flood sued the Pittston Coal Company, seeking $64 million in damages, but settled in June 1974 for $13.5 million or approximately $13 thousand for each individual after legal costs. A second suit was filed by 348 child survivors, who sought $225 million, but settled for $4.8 million in June 1974. The state of West Virginia also sued the company for $100 million for disaster and relief damages, but Governor Arch A. Moore, Jr. settled for just $1 million, three days before leaving office in 1977. The lawyers for the plaintiffs, Arnold & Porter of Washington, D.C., donated a portion of their legal fees for the construction of a new community center. West Virginia has yet to build the community center promised by Governor Moore in May 1972.

Gerald M. Stern, an attorney with the law firm of Arnold and Porter, wrote a book entitled The Buffalo Creek Disaster about his experiences in representing the victims of the flood. The book includes descriptions of his experiences dealing with the political and legal environment of West Virginia, where the influence of large coal mining corporations is significant. Sociologist Kai T. Erikson, son of Erik Erikson, wrote a study on the effects of the disaster on the Buffalo Creek community entitled Everything In Its Path. The book later went on to win the Sorokin Award, an accolade handed out by the American Sociological Association for "outstanding contribution to the progress of sociology."

[edit] Miscellany

On their 2001 release White Blood Cells, The White Stripes song "This Protector" alludes to the Buffalo Creek Disaster from the federal mine inspector point-of-view, through lyrics such as "300 people living out in West Virginia/have no idea of all these thoughts that lie within ya".

In 2005, rock group American Minor named their first single "Buffalo Creek" after the disaster.

In the NCIS episode Corporal Punishment Dr Mallard references the buffalo creek disaster when discussing PTSD in a soldier returning from the Iraq War.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Modern Marvels: Engineering Disasters of the 70s. The History Channel.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] External links


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