Johnstown weekly Democrat. (Johnstown, Cambria County, Pa.) 1889-1916, 1889-07-12
THAT DEATH-DEALING WAVE.
It's velocity, Its Appearance,andt the Mightl
(;ust of Wind That Preceded 1T.

THAT DEATH-DEALING WAVE.
Its velocitv. It's Appearance,a ce ,and the Mighty
Gust of Wind That Preceded Ii.
st. Louis Globe-Democrat.
The velocity of the wave is an interest
ing subject of inquiry. The information
upon this point is in some respects puz-
zling. Young Parke, the engineer OF the
South Fork Lake, stood by the dam and
saw the water go over the crest and eat
out the lower side of it. He says the
water commenced running over at l
O'Clock in the afternoon, and that the dam
gave way at o'clock, having sustained
this wearing-away process for two hours.
The clocks in Johnstown show that the
water reached there at 4-07. The wave
then was an hour in traversing the twelve
or fourteen miles of narrow valley to the
place where i. did itsgreatest destruction.
The fall in that distance is about $50 feet.
The velocity varied 1t was not so rapid
in the upper part of the valley. TIE
people at South Fork, the first settlement
in the way, escaped without exception.
The losses of life were comparatively
small at Mineral Point and at Conemaugh,
but when the wave reached the latter
place its velocity was tremendous. From
there to Johnstown the wave had a
straight course, and it moved with
speed which can only be estimated by
comparison. The whistles of the engines
gave the alarm. The people looked up
the valley, saw a black mass coming
straight toward them, and tried to run
up stairs. The water entered the houses
and mounted the stairs almost as fast as
the people did AT least that is what
many claim as their experiences.
The railroad men who saw the wave
from the tops of cars and from the hills
at various points gives the movement the
character of a succession of checks and
rushes. They say that the vast load of
trees, houses, earth, and other wreckage
which the wave carried with it caused a
temporary dam to form dozen times on
the way down. Coming to place where
the valley suddenly narrowed the mass of
timbers and trees would be crowded and
would slow up. Behind the dam the
waters would back up until the pressure
would become too much, and then the
mass would go out with great rush.
Foreman Kelly, of the Pennsylvania road,
said one of these temporary checks oc-
Cured near Conemaugh. The water was
thrown back and the spray dashed forty
feet high. The whole surface back of the
moving dam surged and boiled. But the
check was only for a few moments. Then
the mass let go and moved straight down
the valley, striking Johnstown squarely
in the centre, crossing through the heart
of the city and plunging over Stonycreek
and INTO the South Side before its impetus
was again checked. ForemanKelly thought
teen feet higher than the outer edges.
This series of checks of the wave on the
route down is the only thing which will
account for the length of time occupied
in the passage from the dam to Johnstown.
The speed was much greater than four
teen miles an hour while the wave was
moving. If there had been no holding
up, the route would have been traversed
in half the time it was, but the force
could have been hardly more destructive.
William Davis, the agent at Conemaugh,
observed what others poted, the rolling
and boiling and grinding movement. The
water was carrying a great load, but the
logs and other objects were being continp-
ally tossed above the surface as if the
mass was full of life.
Another phenomenon which many saw
was the wind Just ahead of the wave.
That wind, Foreman Kelly said. actually
moved houses from their foundations be-
fore the wave reached them. This eX-
plains in some degree the declarations of
one class of eye witnesses who saw the
wave go by while in its greatest velocity.
These insist that there did not seem to be
any water in the front of the wave. The
front, according to their description, was
a rolling collection of trees, rocks, houses,
timbers, cars, earth, grass, and every
thing else moving down the valley, with
great lake pushing behind it. OF such
appearance was the front Of the wave,
they say, until the valley wIdened at
Woodvale, and there the water came for
ward and mingled with this moving dam,
and the whole mass, without any regard
to the rivers channel, plunged through
Johnstown-at the same time hurricane,
an avalanche, and flood, with all the de-
structive powers of each.
ASSORTED SMILES.