++ The Johnstown Flood

I have just re-read `The Johnstown Flood,' and it brought to mind how similar in structure and narrative methodology it is to Walter Lord's classic account of the Titanic disaster, `A Night to Remember.' Both treat with relatively brief periods of time which are dissected hour by hour. Both recount the respective disasters by carefully setting the stage with principal actors and pivotal events, those of a night and those of a day. Both were due to natural occurrences which could have been avoided, but were not. And both are even similar in the number of lives lost. And both are simply wonderful reads.



Among the crucial differences between them, of course, is that History lovers can actually visit Johnstown relatively easily and see for themselves the setting of the calamity and the efforts that have been made to memorialize it. First, the site of the erstwhile lake is readily accessible and the trip gives some sense of the changes in elevations between it and the town, although the long-gone body of water is difficult to visualize. Then there is a fine museum downtown which very innovatively displays the course and ferocity of the watery onslaught in pictures and interactive models. The highlight is a solid wall of the museum space covered with the kind of debris that would have accumulated at the bridge and elsewhere throughout the town, uniformly colored the inevitable, doleful brown of earth-and civilization itself-disrupted. Then go to a restaurant at the top of a hill overlooking the town and accessible by a funicular. The location provides a perfect view up the valley and I guarantee will send chills down your spine as you picture the flood cascading down and destroying just about every living and standing thing in its path.



Finally, travel to the Grandview Cemetery where most if not all of the victims are interred. The 777 unidentified bodies are buried together in a semi-circle of modest markers overlooked by a marble figure of a watchful angel. My wife and I visited several years ago in early June and there remained at the site a beautiful standing flower arrangement with a ribbon saying, "You are not forgotten." McCullough and the memorializations of the town's residents ensure they are not.


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