Paul Cowan, Book Review of Gerald Sterns The Buffalo Creek Disaster: The Story of the Survivors Unprecedented Lawsuit, The New York Times Book Review, September 5, 1976, pp.6-7. October 5, 1973Plaintiffs filed supplemental more definite statement As of 1987, Pittston was still among the ten largest coal companies in the U.S. from [any] overflow from the lake.. The flood wave destroyed houses and mobile homes, uprooted trees, and swept topsoil, huge rocks, trucks and cars downstream. Click for copy. Pierson said he traumatized at age seven by the power going off during a rain storm and his grandfather knocking on the door. 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. In the early morning hours of Saturday, February 26th, 1972, after three days of rain, a series of coal slurry impoundments in the upper reaches of the Buffalo Creek watershed in Logan County, West Virginia, were beginning to weaken. amzn_assoc_search_bar = "true"; Aerial photograph from 'The Herald Dispatch' (Huntington, WV) captures some of the enormous damage in the Buffalo Creek valley, showing collection of homes uprooted and floated down the valley, covering roads and rail lines. 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. In an out of court settlement, the survivors were awarded $13.5 million, $6 million of which was distributed on the basis of a point system as compensation for the psychological damages. recommended an emergency spillway on Dam #3 in his inspection report. 1975, which recounted a major court case and liability settlement that emerged from the tragedy on Buffalo Creek. What was the settlement in the Buffalo Creek disaster? You may opt-out anytime by clicking "unsubscribe" from the newsletter or from your account. Not long thereafter, the dam gave way, creating the horror that unfolded for the Buffalo Creek communities downstream. Me driving a bus, I knew about 80% of these people, and every name that went by, I can visualize them at that time, Moore said. Create a password that only you will remember. ", Dealing with Disasters: Some Thoughts on the Adequacy of the Legal System, Coming from West Virginia: An Interview with Songwriter Tom Breiding, The Legendary Language of the Appalachian Holler, Prisoners Like Us: German POW and Black American Solidarity, Hysteria, Indigenous Identities, and Cocaine Bear, Fast and Pluribus: Impacts of a Globalizing McDonalds, How Rap Taught (Some of) the Hip Hop Generation Black History, About the American Prison Newspapers Collection, Submissions: American Prison Newspapers Collection. Have a correction or comment about this article? The number stern settled on was 32.5 million dollars. However, he did question the ability of the overflow pipes in Dam No. It just doesnt seem that long ago that it happened, Harvey said. 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. Hall also asked Pittston 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 . (Rockefeller would later be elected governor and U.S. WVU is an EEO/Affirmative Action employer Minority/Female/Disability/Veteran. 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. Pierson said he still feels a bit of anger over the aftermath of the flood. The Buffalo Creek Disaster, February 26, 1972 One of worst floods in US occurred here 26 February 1972, when Buffalo Mining Co. impoundment dam for mine waste broke, releasing over 130 million gallons of black waste water: killed 125; property losses over $50 million; and thousands left homeless. July 14, 1970West Virginia Department of Natural Resources (WVDNR) Inspector 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. Why Theyve Got West Virginians Worried, YesMagazine.org, April 23, 2015. Robert Shy, among those in the West Virginia Army National Guard who helped during the crisis, flew helicopters up and down the valley delivering water and milk and picking up dazed and injured survivors. Jules Lob, Buffalo Creek Now A Valley of Death, Charleston Gazette, March 5, 1972. Nearly 50 years later, there are still hundreds of coal waste dams to worry about, as well as other assorted coal waste dangers throughout the U.S. What happened after the Buffalo Creek disaster? 1, No. .. (2) Stern, G.M. When the water set it down again, it just flattened out on the ground. markets. Jack Spadaro, a mine safety investigator and environmental specialist, has made it his life's work to prevent such disasters from happening again. The association will hold its annual kids fishing event in April, giving away 125 rods and reels and other fishing gear. regulations forbid the closing off of any stream or the impoundment of water to the one at Buffalo Creek collapses, killing 147 people. The people of Appalachia seem to be forever poised at some vague mid-point between ability and disability, is one such Erikson statement. June 12, 1964Buffalo Mining Company (BMC) incorporated. According to some, however, there were positive changes that did come to coalfield and regulatory practices in the years immediately following the disaster. June 26, 1974The plaintiffs and Pittston settle for $13.5 million. Arnold and Porter noticed Pittstons president and vice-presidents depositions 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. and $50 million punitive damages. February 1972. As a way to remember and memorialize the devastating flood, a small gathering of survivors congregated at the Buffalo Creek Memorial Library at South Man Friday afternoon. By 1957, the Buffalo Mining Company, as part of its strip mining operations, began dumping gob mine waste consisting of mine dust, shale, clay, low-quality coal, and other impurities into the Middle Fork branch. The site is secure. It just broke your heart to see firsthand the devastation that water could do, he would tell a Herald Dispatch reporter. Thats the year we really got cranked up, Harvey said. 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. A number of leaks and smaller spills have also occurred. Miles away, a coal companys hillside impoundment dams collapsed, sending slurry thundering downhill and into the hollow, inundating small communities and killing 125 people. Middle Fork Buffalo Creek, Saunders, West Virginia, Volume 1, February 1973. I saw my neighbors houses leave. 1977 edition of Gerald Stern's book on class-action lawsuit he brought against Pittston Coal Co. on behalf of Buffalo Creek survivors and settled in 1974. National Guard helicopters picked up survivors and delivered supplies. Nader and McAteer, in a letter to key members of Congress urging investigations, estimated that hundreds of thousands of West Virginians living in narrow Appalachian valleys, could be threatened by sudden catastrophic flooding from unstable coal waste dams. But those improved practices didnt last. 1946The Buffalo Creek Company purchased the Lorado Coal Company. As customary each year, the service began with a reading of the names of the deceased by the individuals in the room. Mimi Pickering, my wife, made two documentary films about the disaster. He believed most local people didnt tell Randolph and other politicians how they really feel. The state Legislature had sued Pittston for $100 million. More than a dozen towns were inundated and 125 people lost their lives. Tim Hall, left, explains how the events of the Buffalo Creek Flood shaped his life during a memorial service at the Buffalo Creek Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 24. The survivors of the Buffalo Creek disaster suffered both individual and collective trauma, the latter being reflected in their loss of communality. The flood caused many tears, pain and death. Stern met with plaintiffs and obtained settlement authority. Pearl Woodrum letter, Feb 1968 Interiors study had been prompted by a coal dam failure in Aberfan, Wales in 1966 a catastrophe that had killed 147 people, including 116 school children. 2 had ever been formally approved by the state. - $13 million - Initially asked for $32 million - 2016: would be $65,208,559 (without legal and contingency fees) The outcome for Arnold & Porter - $3 million in legal fees (1974) - 43,000 man-hours . 3 was rising one or two inches per hour. January 1, 1971Pittstons umbrella insurance underwriters imposed a $1 1,121 individuals were injured over 4,000 of Buffalo Creeks approximately 5,000 residents were immediately rendered homeless. Gertie Moore recalls a personal story about the Buffalo Creekduring a memorial service at the Buffalo Creek Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 24. The Buffalo Creek Disaster: The Story of the Survivors . You have permission to edit this article. 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 . June 2, 1971BMCs vice president asked Pittstons legal counsel about In addition to coal waste dams used in mining and coal washing operations, there are also more than 1,400 coal ash impoundments used mostly at or near coal-fired powerplants in the U.S. Stern describes victims losing family members before their eyes, and the devastation caused by the flood. The pool behind Dam No. He reported there was no danger of a washout of Dam No. discovery confidential. 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. This dam failure released 1.1 billion gallons of coal ash slurry into the Emory and Clinch rivers. 12, No. 1 (Apr., 1978), pp. Depta recalls the trailers brought in by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to set up temporary living for the newly homeless. Judge Hall suggests selecting 4-5 sample cases on the question of liability. Many cases can take months if not years to reach trial and settlement. Pittston objected to Arnold & Porters more definite statement, asking the 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. psychic injury while they were physically away from Buffalo Creek during the flood. March 11, 1967Pittstons Dola, W.Va., dam failed and a massive flood In March 1967, a partial collapse at one of the dams caused some flooding in the hollow, alarming residents already concerned about the structures. 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 . 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. Death in Buffalo Hollow, Newsweek, March 13, 1972. Volunteers picked up trash around the creek. 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. In 1973, the West Virginia Legislature passed the Dam Control Act, regulating all dams in the state. settled a lawsuit over this breakdown. 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. 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. By DYLAN VIDOVICH Logan County West Virginia Man, 1997. Approximately 550 homes were destroyed, and another 900-plus were damaged. When the deluge receded, he saw bodies along the long walk to check on relatives, images that have been seared into the veterans mind. Old community ties and neighbor networks could not be reestablished. 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 https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely. Richard Carelli, Mining Official Blames Explosions on Flood Water Hitting Hot Slag Pile, Charleston Gazette, March 9, 1972. and denies the motion for the time being while plaintiffs obtain full discovery. There had been emergency relief, but little community redevelopment. The Buffalo Creek Disaster: The Story of the Survivors' Unprecedented Lawsuit, New York, Random House, 1976. For as it turns out, there are coal waste impoundments, and coal waste disposal methods, of many kinds. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. 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. 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. Arch Moore agreed to a $1 million settlement before leaving office in . All Rights Reserved. Mary Walton, State Warned in 1967 of Larado Dam Danger, Charleston Gazette, March 1, 1972. forbidden in December 1970. The headlines the next day played the catastrophe as a flood disaster, as there had been heavy rain. Kai Erikson's book, "Everything In Its Path: Destruc-tion of Community in The Buffalo Creek Flood". 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. Click for copy. The plaintiffs settled out of court for $13.5 million in 1974, with each individual receiving an average of $13,000 after legal costs. December 2008. MSHA recognizes those who were impacted in the 1972 flood that killed 125 and injured over 1100 people. The first was an ad hoc commission established by West Virginia Governor Arch Moore. For many, Eriksons book became a definitive take on Buffalo Creek, as well as Appalachian culture as a whole. A separate settlement for survivors amounted to about $13,000 per plaintiff. Were owned by the coal company. An accounting of the disaster, and multiple investigations, would then proceed to piece together what had happened there, focused on the coal mining and dam building. Click for copy. As an article in Vox noted, this kind of stereotyping is on full display in the popular book and film Hillbilly Elegy. The association used settlement money to start fixing the creek. The Buffalo Creek flood was a disaster that occurred in Logan County, West Virginia on February 26, 1972 when a coal slurry impoundment dam burst, causing significant loss of life and property damage. Hope Wanes for 94 Listed Missing in Logan; Known Flood Dead is 88, Charleston Gazette, March 4, 1972. Arnold & Porters medical and psychological experts started interviewing and (1976). It also held coal reserves of 1.5 billion tons, mostly high-grade metallurgical coal used in steel-making. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure youre on a federal government site. I wouldve took a gunshot or anything. 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. . Human relationships in this community had been derived from traditional bonds of kinship and neighborliness. The state's investigation into the disaster is filled with controversy. In 1960, Buffalo Mining had constructed its first gob dam, or impoundment, near the mouth of Middle Fork in 1960. The little girl, Darla in September, she was a Kindergarten student and she got on my bus one morning and her mother had cleaned house, Moore said, and she brought me some plastic flowers that she had got out of the garbage and brought to me, and I thought that was so sweet. Gerald M.Stern writes the story of The Buffalo Creek Disaster, how a coal cleaning impoundment dam burst, killing 125 people injuring more than 1000 and causing over 4000 people to be homeless. The Pittston Company: Company Profile & History, ReferenceForBusiness.com. Youve still got but it was gone, just like being somewhere and a volcano went off and wiped out your entire village, and even after it was all over with, they went through there and tore out our little road and destroyed all of our little communities, and the people that wanted to couldnt even move back to where they used to live at., It hurts, Hall said. Published: Feb. 27, 2022 at 12:17 PM PST. Generated by Wordfence at Wed, 1 Mar 2023 10:03:54 GMT.Your computer's time: document.write(new Date().toUTCString());. Stern and Staker begin discussing settlement. After last year, Pierson, who now lives in Scott Depot, made the drive home to Logan County once again to reminisce with other survivors. 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