WATER AND STEEL: THE LEGACY OF THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD 

To commemorate the 136th anniversary of the historic 1889 Johnstown Flood, the Dover Public Library will offer “Water and Steel: The Legacy of the Johnstown Flood,” a five-part series during the month of May. The first program “Disastrous Floods and the Demise of Steel in Johnstown, PA” will take place on Thursday, May 1 at 6:30 PM in the Community Room. Presented by Patrick Farabaugh, author and professor of communications at Saint Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania, this program charts the harrowing history of Johnstown’s great floods (1889, 1936 and 1977) and its effects on the city’s economy.  A book signing will follow the program.

Johnstown, Pennsylvania, is synonymous with floodwaters and steel. When the city was decimated by a flood of biblical proportions in 1889, it was considered one of the worst natural disasters in American history and gained global attention. Sadly, that deluge was only the first of three major floods to claim lives and wreak havoc in the region. The destruction in the wake of the St. Patrick’s Day Flood in 1936 was the impetus for groundbreaking federal and local flood control measures. Multiple dam failures, including the Laurel Run Dam in July 1977, left a flooded Johnstown with a failing steel industry in ruins.