On July 20, 1977 a flash flood devastated Johnstown, Pennsylvania, killing 84 people and causing millions of dollars in damages. This flood happened 88 years after the Horrible Flood of 1889 that was one of the worst weather-related disasters in US history that killed more than 2,000 people. Johnstown sits in a deep valley, hard against the Conemaugh river. In that earlier flood, the dams in the Conemaugh Valley failed, bringing disaster to Johnstown and as fate would have it the combination of the weather and those human made dams would once again bring catastrophe. The flood occurred when an extraordinary amount of rain came down in the Conemaugh Valley in a short period of time. Nearly 12 inches were measured in 10 hours. The National Weather Service later estimated that this amount of rain in that location should happen less than once every 1,000 years. Dams started bursting upstream from Johnstown. The largest dam that burst was at Laurel Run. This 10-year-old earthen dam held back 100 million gallons of water. Despite having a 42-foot-high spillway, the dam failed and the resulting flood devastated the town of Tanneryville. Five other dams in the area also burst, releasing another 30 million gallons of water. The failure of the dams was a shock. Johnstown had constructed an entire system designed to completely eliminate the flood risk after the devasting flood of 1889 and a destructive flood in 1936. Many safely measures were in place along with inspections. Still, the dams were no match for the thunderstorm that stalled over the area on July 20. In addition to the 84 people who lost their lives to the flood, $300 million or more than $1.2 Billion in 2021 dollars in damages were suffered and hundreds of people lost their homes. President Carter declared the region a federal disaster area and the National Guard was sent to assist in the relief efforts. Despite millions spent to rehabilitate the Johnstown area, the economy never recovered. The city’s population decreased nearly 15 percent in the aftermath of the flood, as people moved away.

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