Johnstown Flood

The Johnstown Flood (locally, the Great Flood of 1889) occurs on May 31, 1889, after the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam, located on the south fork of the Little Conemaugh River, fourteen miles (twenty-three kilometers) upstream of the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

The dam breaks after several days of extremely heavy rainfall, releasing 14.55 million cubic meters of water.

With a volumetric flow rate that temporarily equals the average flow rate of the Mississippi River, the flood kills more than twenty-two hundred people and accounts for seventeen million dollars of damage (about four hundred and eighty-four million in 2019 dollars).

The American Red Cross, led by Clara Barton and with fifty volunteers, undertakes a major disaster relief effort.

Support for victims comes from all over the United States and eighteen foreign countries.

After the flood, survivors suffers a series of legal defeats in their attempts to recover damages from the dam's owners.

Public indignation at this failure prompts the development in American law changing a fault-based regime to one of strict liability.