| Sumario: | This article recalls the tragic historical events that took place when a flood hit Johnstown, Pennsylvania in May 31, 1889 due to an inland tidal wave that was created by a heavy rainstorm that eroded an earthen dam and sent 20 million tons of water into the town, killing 2,209 people. The calamity that befell the city was considered as the worst peacetime disaster that the U.S. had yet suffered. The deluge shocked U.S. citizens in a way that few catastrophes before or since have done. It was the biggest news story in generation and the subject of poems, ballads and lantern-slide shows. At a time when federal disaster relief did not exist, the recovery of Johnstown was achieved through the private charity campaign the American Red Cross. However, the flood became a scandal because it was arguably unavoidable and because the lake that descended on industrial Johnstown was owned by rich men who used it as their private playground. The flood became a social and political symbol as well, reflecting the sharp class differences that persisted in the U.S. and the emergent populist current that challenged them. Floods had been recurrent menace in Johnstown, but then due to Man's incessant tampering with nature, they had struck even more frequently--seven times in the preceding eight years.
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