May 31, 1889: The Johnstown Flood

May 31, 1889: The Johnstown Flood kills 2,208 people, one of the worst man-made disasters in history.

Johnstown, Pennsylvania is 67 miles east of Pittsburgh. It sits at the confluence of the Little Conemaugh River and the Stonycreek River, as they form the Conemaugh River. That river eventually flows into the Kiskiminetas River, which flows into the Allegheny River, which combines with the Monongahela River at Pittsburgh to form the Ohio River.

Like so many other Pennsylvania towns in the 19th Century, Johnstown became a producer of iron, coal and steel. But it flooded pretty much every year. On May 30, 1889, they had a Memorial Day parade, and got it done before the rain came. But the rain kept coming, and coming.

The next day, at 2:55 PM, the South Fork Dam, which had formed Lake Conemaugh, burst. The City of Johnstown, 14 miles downriver, never had a chance: It was hit with over 14 million cubic meters of water, about the average annual flow of the Mississippi River, coming at 40 miles per hour. It hit at 3:52, and in 10 minutes, Johnstown was ruined.

There were 1,600 homes destroyed. The 2,208 deaths included 396 children. Bodies of Johnstown residents were carried westward, past Pittsburgh. One was found as far down the Ohio River as Cincinnati. One person listed as missing wasn't found until 1911.

Frank Shomo, the last known person to have been living in Johnstown in 1889, lived until March 20, 1997, age 108.

Remarkably, the Pennsylvania Railroad was able to restore service in only 3 days. On June 5, Clara Barton, founder and President of the American Red Cross, arrived to lead their 1st major disaster relief effort. She stayed for 5 months, and it made the Red Cross the country's defining relief organization. Donations for relief amounted to over $3.7 million -- about $113 million in 2022 money.

Within a month, the mills were operating again. The city grew. By the turn of the 20th Century, Johnstown was home to 67,000 people. But on March 17, 1936, the city was stricken again, with the St. Patrick's Day Flood. This time, they were comparatively lucky, with just 25 deaths.

From 1938 to 1943, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers altered the river channels, with the idea of making the city "flood-free." When Hurricane Agnes hit the Northeast in 1972, Johnstown was pretty much the only riverside town in Pennsylvania that didn't get flooded.

In 1926, Point Stadium opened, as a minor-league ballpark, right where the two rivers come together to form one. The Johnstown Johnnies had won the Middle Atlantic League Pennant the year before, and got a new ballpark as a reward. They won the Pennant again that 1st season, and won it again in 1930. But the team played until 1961, and never won another.

The ballpark was torn down and replaced in 2005, and they have since had teams in "independent" leagues. A a renovated 7,500-seat Sargent's Stadium at The Point became home Johnstown Mill Rats of the Prospect League in 2021.

The city became the home of a minor-league hockey team, the Johnstown Jets, starting in 1950. The 4,000-seat Cambria County War Memorial Arena opened that year. In 1976, the hockey movie Slap Shot was filmed in the city, including inside the Arena and outside the steel mills, even though it was said to be taking place in the Charlestown section of Boston.

Life imitated art: Like the movie's Charlestown Chiefs, the Johnstown Jets were moved after the 1976-77 season. But new teams have come and gone, including the Johnstown Chiefs, in honor of the movie, from 1988 to 2010. Since 2012, the Arena has been home to the Johnstown Tomahawks of the North American Hockey League.

But like Pennsylvania as a whole, the decline of industry in the 1970s clobbered Johnstown. And then, on July 19, 1977, they found out they weren't flood-proof. The Laurel Run Dam failed, and 84 people were killed. By the recession of the early 1990s, steel was out of Johnstown. In 2003, a survey rated Johnstown the least likely city in American to attract newcomers.

Today, Johnstown is a small city of about 19,000 people. The University of Pittsburgh opened a campus there, and that helped. Some of the abandoned mills have been turned into low-income housing, and studios for artists and dancers. But the city will never be what it was between the floods of 1889 and 1977.

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May 31, 1889 was a Friday. There were three games played in what would later be called Major League Baseball.

Two of them were a National League doubleheader, at the Philadelphia Base Ball Grounds. The Philadelphia Quakers swept the Indianapolis Hoosiers, winning the 1st game 11-8, and the 2nd game 11-4.

The Hoosiers folded at the end of the season. The Quakers would change their name to the Philadelphia Phillies the next season. The Base Ball Grounds would burn down in 1894, and be replaced on the same site the next season by the ballpark eventually known as Baker Bowl.

And in the American Association, the Columbus Solons beat the Louisville Colonels, 7-2 at Recreation Park in Columbus, Ohio. The Solons folded with the AA in 1891, while the Colonels joined the NL, only to fold after the 1899 season.