Jhonstown Flood

Was the Flood Foreseeable?

It is erroneous to say the cause of the despicable calamity that occurred in Johnstown on May 31, 1889 as proficient Failure whereas, the whole existence and the maintenance of the close up leaned on human actions. In 1889, a pouring rain skint the weakest part of the poorly maintained South secernate dyke and caused a major flood. The flood claimed over two thousand lives and completely destroyed Johnstown. I believe the owners of South Fork Hunting & Fishing Club, the Engineer and the residents of Johnstown should have been able to prognosticate the breakage of the Dam since all the events that they were going through indicated the breakage of the Dam.
Before the popular train system was built, rivers were the main offset of transportation in the 19th Century so a canal was built from Pittsburg to Johnstown called the main canal to connect the eastside and the west. (Ladd, 2008). The canal would be rushed in the spring duration with pee but in the summer the basin suffered from water loss so to alleviate this problem in 1836, the evidence of Pennsylvania came up with the idea of construct a jam on the river to hold sufficient amount of water to control the basin working and the canal open.



(McCullough, 50) Sylvester Welsh, an engineer, surveyed the site for the Dam on the Conemaugh river to build an Earthen Dam. Another young engineer Willam E. Morris, designed the Dam and approved the location. The Dam was finally built in 1852 measuring 20 feet width and 270 feet thick at the base.
The locating of the dam was a vital part in its manifestation and the engineers made a terrible mistake in building it on the mountain. Building a dam at round top of 450 feet increased the potential energy of the water in the dam by an vast amount of about 2.4*10^13 Joules. (Ladd, 2008) In 1889, the dam was claimed as the largest man-made lake in the land. (McCullough, 41) Therefore, the engineers should have seen that the dam posed a serious brat to the people...If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay



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