| After reaching the City of
Johnstown the wave of death had claimed 2,209 lives and destroyed not
only a city but crippled a major U.S. steel producer, the Cambria Iron
Company.
Days and weeks after the flood those who survived, newspaper
reporters, and curiosity seekers crawled over the debris in search of
loved ones, property, and a sense of place. Some of those survivors
wrote of their experiences before and after the terrible wave. Many of
their stories were published but over the course of time have become
more and more rare. Now for the first time their stories are available
in digital format.
Through a partnership with the National Park Service's Johnstown
Flood National Memorial and a Library Services and Technology Act Grant
administered by Commonwealth Libraries the story of the Great Johnstown
Flood of 1889 is presented. |
