Lake Conemaugh filling due to the rain before the dam collapsed (google images).
The town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania is
located in a valley 14 miles downstream from Lake Conemaugh. Little Conemaugh
River is a river that travels downstream leading to the town. Beginning May 28,
for a full three days, the area was saturated with rain. Lake Conemaugh had
already risen eight inches and rivers were rising at about a foot an hour. Rain
was causing streams to form that had never been seen. In the town of Johnstown,
streets were already filling with water, which was not unusual, therefore, the
people of the town were not thinking anything of it. Freight trains were
traveling to the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, which got stuck upstream
due to the rain fall. The Day Express train had 90 passengers plus the crew.
They were ordered to stay in the village of East Conemaugh until further
notice. The train crew sensed trouble and tried to alert the town. Due to the position of the town the rain swelled
Lake Conemaugh, caused the dam to break and the flowing water to begin to head
towards Johnstown,Typically, when the
water from the dam overflows the water goes into the spillway, but in this
situation, the spillway was already clogged with debris and suffered from poor
maintenance. Unfortunately, the telegraphs were down the day of the flood due
to the terrible storms.Telegraphs were made for long distance
communication by transmitting signals through wires between stations. Back in the day, telegraphs were used to alert
people of the town to prepare for certain weather conditions. In times past,
there had been many scares that the dam was going to break and that there would
be a flood, therefore, it was almost like crying wolf and no one ever took the
warning serious (Charles Guggenheim, Video).