April 30, 1974Plaintiffs amended their complaint. amzn_assoc_search_bar = "true"; Senator Ed Muskie (D-NH) in one photo, then running for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination, shown campaigning ahead of the New Hampshire primary. Young details the harm of negative Appalachian stereotypes. Published: Feb. 27, 2022 at 12:17 PM PST. October 23, 1890: "Wreck on the C&O" November 4, 1985: Floods devastate West Virginia. The state's investigation into the disaster is filled with controversy. Governor Moore, however, acting to protect the Pittston Coal Company, tried, unsuccessfully, to suppress his own commissions report. dumping coal refuse into the mouth of Middle Fork hollow. That failure sent 300 million gallons of liquid coal waste tearing through the underground mine chambers, then spewing out of mountainside portals into valley streams below. Your access to this service has been limited. They are used to hard times. One thing that really impressed me, though, was there was no immediate display of emotion, Porterfield said, remembering the survivors. The three dams also served as something of a crude pollution-prevention system: filtering, settling out, and retaining the dirty prep plant particles and toxins found in the coal wastewater, also enabling some reuse of the water in processing. Stern describes victims losing family members before their eyes, and the devastation caused by the flood. The Buffalo Creek (W.Va.) flood is one of the most extensively examined and longest followed disasters in the psychiatric study of trauma. there wasnt any flood. UPI photographer Leo Gardner, one of the first outsiders to reach the area reported, Lorado was wiped out. Another early report from the devastation noted: 52 bodies lying on both sides of the road running alongside Buffalo Creek. Some drowned in the floodwaters, while others were buried by landslides, as a thick muck had moved along with the coal water. Nader was also quoted saying: The Buffalo Creek massacre is only one more in the long series of tragedies which coal corporations have perpetrated upon the people of Appalachia, especially of West Virginia.. And people die. Why Theyve Got West Virginians Worried, YesMagazine.org, April 23, 2015. Set during the Polish-Soviet War of 19191920, Babels novel captured the indiscriminate violence and injustice of warfare. amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart"; 16, Nos. [I]f you dont do something, she wrote, prophetically, were all going to be washed away. Her letter did bring a state inspector to visit the dams. As an article in Vox noted, this kind of stereotyping is on full display in the popular book and film Hillbilly Elegy. a claims office in Buffalo Creek.Pittston moved for summary judgment because Pittston and denies the motion for the time being while plaintiffs obtain full discovery. 1929). The Buffalo Creek flood was a disaster that occurred in Logan County, West Virginia on February 26, 1972 when a coal slurry impoundment dam burst, causing significant loss of life and property damage. Wallace Adkins of Robinette, tried to escape the on-rushing wall of water by loading up his family car. Access from your area has been temporarily limited for security reasons. The U.S. Three coal waste dams in West Virginia failed, killing 125 people and injuring 1,100 more in communities downstream of the dams. The Buffalo Creek Disaster: An Effective Supplement to a Conventional Civil Procedure Course Lawrence M. Grosberg Gerald Stern's The Buffalo Creek Disaster 1 and the lawsuit which is the subject of his book provide an excellent vehicle to complement a conven-tionally taught civil procedure course. Congressman Ken Hechler (D-WV)), who also came to the area on Sunday, February 27th, told reporters that the U.S. Bureau of Mines and state agencies had failed to demonstrate sufficient concern for the protection of the safety of the people who work in the mines and live in the mining communities. Hechler also pointed to what he believed was a contributing cause of the flooding: As I looked through Buffalo Creek valley yesterday, it struck me again that the entire valley is honeycombed with strip mines and the waste from deep mines so that the soil can no longer hold the [rain] water. Hechler also slammed the coal industrys power in the area, saying, the people are prisoners of the coal industry And with some irony, he added, the only building left intact in one Buffalo community was the company store., On Monday, February 28th, U.S. BMCs vice Is the unique Appalachian dialect the preserved language of Elizabethan England? As residents gather this weekend on the 50th anniversary of one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history, theyre also able to revel in a comeback. Home; 1969Congress enacted the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act. In addition to coal waste dams used in mining and coal washing operations, there are also more than 1,400 coal ash impoundments used mostly at or near coal-fired powerplants in the U.S. Coal waste dumping had gone on there for decades, up in the hills, at the headwaters of the Buffalo Creek. During the flood, 125 people lost their lives, 1,100 were injured and 4,000 were left homeless. dam will hold. Headlines from an Associated Press story reporting that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers -- also testifying at U.S. Senate hearings -- found the the Pittston Coal Co. dam above Buffalo Creek was "doomed from the start.". In Buffalo Creek Revisited: Deconstructing Kai Eriksons Stereotypes, the sociologists Lynda Ann Ewen and Julia A. Lewis write: Eriksons conclusions about the people of Appalachia have along with studies of snake handlers, come to define what students who study sociology know about all of Appalachia. They assert that Erikson validates the national perceptions of Appalachians as peculiar, isolated, and backward and that Everything in Its Path has become a part of the social construction of the modern stereotype of Appalachia.. Committee in a lawsuit against Pittston. [W]e decided we would band together and hope it would relieve our tensions and fears, stated one member of the group. February 28Pittston employee distributes warning memorandum previously Pittston failed to obtain an independent engineering opinion on the Buffalo Pittston by then had developed a reputation for poor safety practices, and was ranked second nationally in the number of fatal and non-fatal mine accidents. A Buffalo Creek native, Victor M. Depta, gets at this idea of recurring tragedy in a 1973 poem, written not long after the flood. 2/3 (152/153) (2018), pp. 45, No. Based on the testimony obtained from hearings, technical reports and our own field inspection, the Commission concludes that: Dam No. In addition to its coal debris, the slurry wave picked up an abrasive and destructive mixture of semi-rotten trees, rocks, and sediment as it went, gouging out the land and becoming a more lethal force capable of battering and sweeping away all in its path. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines (W. A. Wahler & Associates), Analysis of Coal Refuse Dam Failure. Mary Walton, State Warned in 1967 of Larado Dam Danger, Charleston Gazette, March 1, 1972. 8:03 a.m., dam #3 failed and carried away dams #1 and #2. He said he feels his experience with the flood is what led him to lead that lifestyle. The couple had nine children. I was terrified of water because I lived through it as a kid and I was just traumatized, but I tell you what, after that dam broke and I seen what I seen, I never was afraid of water again. Ive got uranium and all kinds of radioactive stuff in my bedroom. But $27 million in flood emergency funds was used in 1975 to build a highway that really went nowhere, except to the coal tipples at the head of Buffalo Creek. The state sued the company for $100,000,000 dollars but then Gov. HD Media news reporter Dylan Vidovich can be contacted via email at dvidovich@hdmediallc.com. Resources Division inspectors checked the dams but nothing happened. In that case, the bottom of the 72-acre Big Branch slurry impoundment owned by the Martin County Coal Corp. broke through an abandoned underground mine located below it. In addition, coal wastes have also been dumped into abandoned deep mines and used to reclaim strip mines. An early New York Times story filed from Man, West Virginia, implicated 'coal waste pile' in its reporting on the Buffalo Creek disaster, along with a photo of some of the local damage. dvidovich@hdmediallc.com, House passes religious freedoms bill after attempts to amend fail, WV Senate passes bill aimed at strengthening flood resiliency, Blevins resigns as Man mayor; Fekete appointed, Cline's charges referred to Grand Jury; bond reduction request denied, Chapmanville girls beat Liberty Raleigh, Mingo Central to win sectional title, Dwight Williamson: Racism lived in Logan County in the 1950s, and still does, Amid heated exchange, Chapmanville council rescinds $2,000 sports donation, Townsend sworn in to Chapmanville Police Department, Dwight Williamson: Former baseball player from Holden barely remembered today, Two dead after head-on crash on Buffalo Creek, Beckett: City pursuing inspection process for residential electric hookups. West Virginia Congressman Ken Heckler (D) had offered a bill in 1971 to ban all surface coal mining. As of December 2014, some 331 of these facilities were rated as either holding a high or significant safety hazard meaning likely loss of life in the former case, and significant economic/environmental damage in the latter case. Or something else altogether? In March 1967, a partial collapse at one of the dams caused some flooding in the hollow, alarming residents already concerned about the structures. amzn_assoc_region = "US"; McClintock was a field worker for the Black Lung Association, an organization focused on the debilitating disease common to miners. Some survivors reported homes exploding or splintering apart with the wave's impact. Associated Press wire story reporting "400 missing" in a front-page story that ran in The Tuscaloosa Times newspaper in Alabama. It took just over 15 minutes. 2. The water was there, and then it was gone., As the wave moved down the mountain valley it wiped out much of what stood in its path. 2 gave way, quickly followed by Dam No. The plaintiffs settled out of court for $13.5 million in 1974, with each individual receiving an average of $13,000 after legal costs. 4, Special Focus: Special issue on Post Disaster Societies (2011), pp. Jack Spadaro, a mine safety investigator and environmental specialist, has made it his life's work to prevent such disasters from happening again. We do not see this as a disaster in a vacuum, he said, but a series of events of coal dominating the lives of West Virginians.. Three days later, on February 25, with heavy rain, the water behind dam No. He reported there was no danger of a washout of Dam No. Pittston, meanwhile, would inform its investors that the 1974 settlement that had come with one of the survivors' lawsuits did not impact the company's profit margin. A wave of nearly 130 million gallons of water and other material (a total volume estimated to be between 300 and 400 acre-feet) roared down the Buffalo Creek valley at a velocity estimated to be 20 feet per second in its initial three miles. July 1971Pittstons vice-president of industrial engineering and training February 1972. In the end, more than 125 people were killed, at least 1,000 injured, and some 4,000 left homeless. That year, the Buffalo Creek Watershed Association was formed. Invalid password or account does not exist. If your house burned down, youve still got your neighbors. Crowd of onlookers in the distance surveys the enormous debris field jammed up against a downstream bridge following the Buffalo Creek coal flood. It wasnt long after the flood that lawsuits were brought against Pittston Coal, the company responsible for the slurry dams. I told you this was going to happen, he said, I told you. He had voted for Randolph, but was frustrated with the political process and how the locals were regarded by most politicians. After its pH level and temperature were checked, the creek was returned to the Division of Natural Resources trout stocking program in 2006 after a 34-year hiatus. Buffalo Creek Coal Mine, Logan County, WV Written at SFSU in 2017 About 45 years ago, at the U.S.' coal mining peak, the country had one of its worst mining-related disasters at Buffalo Creek, Logan County, West Virginia [1]. Pittstons 1966A United Kingdom coal-waste dump in South Aberfam, Wales similar 3 on the Middle Fork was born out of the age-old practice in the coal fields of disposing of waste material and was constructed without utilizing technology developed for earthen dams and without using or consulting with professional persons qualified to design and build such a structure. June 2, 1971BMCs vice president asked Pittstons legal counsel about The water is tranquil in the pools where the trout like to hide. The amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual"; As part of its more definite statement, Arnold & Porter filed with the court The chair of the citizens commission, Norman Williams, then deputy director of West Virginias Department of Natural Resources, called for the outlawing of strip mining throughout the state. JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students. To address this problem, two of the main actions taken by the U.S. Bureau of Mines (the federal mine safety agency at that time, now MSHA) were to strengthen the regulations governing the construction of dams by coal mining companies, and to develop in-house technical expertise on impoundment safety. More than 100 people died in southern West Virginia when a dam failed. Stereotypesparticularly the white trash stereotypes depicting Appalachians as lazy, ignorant, and hopelessallow for the continued exploitation of Appalachia by industry. Click for copy. The owner of this site is using Wordfence to manage access to their site. Nearly 50 years later, there are still hundreds of coal waste dams to worry about, as well as other assorted coal waste dangers throughout the U.S. Pittston had made only one payment for $4,000. Kentucky has 102. Kai Erikson's book, "Everything In Its Path: Destruc-tion of Community in The Buffalo Creek Flood". A U.S. Geological Journal of Appalachian Studies, Vol. protect miners and their families. Pittston Quits the Coal Business, Buffalo CreekFlood.org. 3), Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1972. "Coal: A Human History", 2016 edition. One resident at the scene, later quoted in in Kai T. Eriksons book. But before the acquisition, Pittston engineers had reportedly surveyed the Buffalo Mining property, and according to company officials who later testified: Our reports had no indication that there was any danger, or that anything was wrong with the impoundments . Through the 1940s coal mining and coal washing including dumping coal refuse and coal wash water occurred in the area of the Middle Fork, one of three headwater streams that formed Buffalo Creek. alternative for a more definite statement as to plaintiffs states of citizenship Some 208 of these coal combustion waste sites are known to have contaminated groundwater, wetlands, and/or rivers. Last updated on December 30, 2015. . Davitt McAteer's book on the 1907 Monongah mine disaster. At 8 a.m. on Feb. 26, 1972, 130 million gallons of water and coal sludge burst through a dam, poured into Buffalo Creek, and violently surged through 16 . The toxic coal slurry poured into Kentuckys Coldwater and Wolf creeks, then to the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River, traveling more than 70 miles downstream, and eventually reaching the Ohio River, with blackwater visible at Cincinnati. plaintiffs. amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart"; Buffalo Creek Disaster marks 47th anniversary Logan Banner On Feb. 26, 1972, a coal waste dam collapsed on the Middle Fork of Buffalo Creek, releasing 132 million gallons of water, coal refuse and silt into the narrow mountain valley. Robert Shogan's 2004 book, "The Battle of Blair Mountain". He said the impoundment failure at Buffalo Creek was accompanied by multiple warnings. September 2, 1972West Virginia Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry into the Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. PopHistoryDig.com, January 31, 2019. amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit0"; Since our founding in 1986, we have established ourselves as the premier resource for information about OCD and related disorders, as well as the nexus of a broad international community of. Ben A. Franklin, New York Times News Service, Slag Piles Imperil 5th of State Nader, Charleston Gazette, March 5, 1972. 2 held and halted the water. He didnt make it so all these kids, all of them I knew, I knew their parents.. This work revealed the inadequacies that existed at that time in the safety of many of the dams constructed by the coal mining industry. March 5, 1972. I didnt want to drown. Additionally, on one side of the valley below Dam #1, there was a huge smoldering coal refuse pile. recommended an emergency spillway on Dam #3 in his inspection report. amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "thpohidill-20"; Thanks for visiting and if you like what you find here, please make a donation to help support the research and writing at this website. The tautly-worded 31-page report offered detailed findings and evidence of corporate negligence and government failures in the disaster, and proposed 21 recommendations. The company was operating eight mines in the vicinity and ran all the coal through the preparation plant above the dams. It ripped homes from their foundations, swept up cars, mobile homes, and bridges, and even left twisted rail lines in a few places before it finished its destructive run over 17 miles to the Guyandotte River. In the year 2000, increased attention was focused on the regulation of coal waste impoundments following a failure near Inez, Kentucky. Ken Ward, Jr., Agencies Failed to Protect People, Inspector Recalls, Charleston Gazette, Tuesday, February 25, 1997. But the disaster will never be forgotten. Mine Safety and Health Administration) to the Buffalo Creek area a few days after the disaster. [1] For faster navigation, this Iframe is preloading the Wikiwand page for Buffalo Creek flood. (HTTP response code 503). The Buffalo Creek Disaster, February 26, 1972 One of worst floods in US occurred here 26 February 1972, when Buffalo Mining Co. impoundment dam for mine waste broke, releasing over 130 million gallons of black waste water: killed 125; property losses over $50 million; and thousands left homeless. Stephen Young, a Marshall University professor and criminologist, recently wrote an article focused on the 2014 Elk River chemical spill, which left 300,000 West Virginians without clean water. (the diversity amount-in-controversy amount at the time). Mary Walton, Triangle of Blame Placed in Disaster, Charleston Gazette, May 30, 1972, p.1. a federal safety standard prohibiting refuse piles from impeding drainage or impounding Robert Shy, among those in the West Virginia Army National Guard who helped during the crisis, flew helicopters up and down the valley delivering water and milk and picking up dazed and injured survivors. In the early morning hours of Saturday, February 26th, 1972, after three days of rain, a series of coal slurry impoundments in the upper reaches of the Buffalo Creek watershed in Logan County, West Virginia, were beginning to weaken. 2023 West Virginia University. Alvid Davis was working outside his home in the community of Stowe when he looked up and saw the flood waters coming, according to an Associated Press report of February 28, 1972. Moore regarding their request that a coal miner be added to the commission, a separate Citizens Commission was formed to provide an independent review of the disaster. It just doesnt seem that long ago that it happened, Harvey said. The current members of [the Governors] panel are either oriented to coal or apologists for the tragedy, so we are creating our own commission of 19 residents to take testimony from eyewitnesses, said Pat McClintock at the time. One retired coal miner who survived the flood, but who lost his wife, daughter and granddaughter in the disaster, explained what he experienced in one Charleston Gazette account: How I got out of that water, I dont know I rode the house a long ways. May 1, 1974Discovery deadline. It would just go from one hillside to the other. Approximately 550 homes were destroyed, and another 900-plus . 0 ratings 0% found this document useful (0 votes) Emery Jeffreys (former reporter for The Logan Banner; account of his early flood-site reporting), Mud, Muck and Misery, LoganWV.us, February 27, 2018. Gallery: The Buffalo Creek Flood, Herald-Dispatch.com, February 26, 2014. Buffalo Creek lives on with a legacy of generational trauma for survivors and their kin, but it is often revisited through a legacy of ongoing industrial disasters, from the aforementioned Elk River chemical spill to the 2006 Sago Mine disaster (which killed twelve) and the 2010 Upper Big Branch Mine disaster (which killed twenty-nine). As a result many possible . The Buffalo Creek Flood Disaster occurred on the cold rainy Saturday morning of February 26, 1972, when a coal slurry dam failed. January 1, 1971Pittstons umbrella insurance underwriters imposed a $1 Pierson said he still feels a bit of anger over the aftermath of the flood. George Vecsey, Homeless Thousands Await Future in Flooded Valley, New York Times (front page), February 29, 1972. Associated Press, Pittstons Federal Flood Suit Settled Out of Court, Bluefield Daily Telegraph (Bluefield, WV), July 6, 1974, p. 1. He said his family washed off and cooked chickens that were killed in the aftermath of the flood. dams. On February 26, 1972, tragedy struck a small mining community in the coalfields of southern West Virginia. West Virginia Governor's report: "The Buffalo Creek Flood And Disaster". A few helicopters were used initially until local miners and others, and the National Guard, began clearing debris and building makeshift roads and bridges. Titchener, F.T. JSTOR Daily readers can access the original research behind our articles for free on JSTOR. And for the survivors of the Buffalo Creek Disaster, there was little real recovery. The plant was pumping about 500 tons of water-saturated waste into the pond behind dam No. My daughter said she had heard my wife praying when the waters hit the house, said Davis, later recounting his travail. We saw the water lift up our house, said Enda Baisden Short, recalling for The Herald Dispatch of Huntington, West Virginia that she and her husband had run from their home early that Saturday morning just prior to coal waste flood. Kai Eriksons book, Everything In Its Path: Destruc-tion of Community in The Buffalo Creek Flood. 1924Crane Creek flood (Mercer County, WV), refuse pile blocking a waterway Russell Mokhiber, Buffalo Creek, Chapter 5, Corporate Crime & Violence: Big Business Power and the Abuse of the Public Trust, San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1998. W. Va. 1974). Low 54F. Click for copy. How the 1972 Buffalo Creek Flood Disaster Forever Changed Appalachia A Book Proposal by Tom Nugent. Rescue operations and accurate reporting of the dead and missing were made difficult by the fact that access to the area by road had been wiped out, with bridges destroyed and rail lines blocked or flooded. Gerald M. Stern, The Buffalo Creek Disaster: The Story of the Survivors Unprecedented Lawsuit, New York: Random House, 1976. Gerald M.Stern writes the story of The Buffalo Creek Disaster, how a coal cleaning impoundment dam burst, killing 125 people injuring more than 1000 and causing over 4000 people to be homeless. damaged and destroyed bridges, roads, and schools for $50 million compensatory amzn_assoc_linkid = "97ba3d2dfe21cb80a887e1d63f028ef6"; Associated Press, 37 Killed as Flood Sweeps A Valley in West Virginia, New York Times, Sunday, February 27, 1972, p. 1. solicitation of legal business. It later concluded that there was no impropriety. Black water was pumped into pools behind the dams and dams filtered the deposits so that relatively clear water could run out their downstream face. the increased regulation cost might bankrupt it and became open to buyout. amzn_assoc_asins = "0393332217,0938985108,B01MXPYJBV,0802124658"; Feb 28, 1972. Approximately 550 homes were destroyed, and another 900-plus were damaged. The Earth Justice organization, one of the environmental groups following this issue, has complied a U.S. map of these sites as shown above. Pittston, meanwhile, would inform its investors that the 1974 settlement that had come with one of the survivors lawsuits did not impact the companys profit margin. Some residents in higher hilltop homes overlooking Buffalo Creek, watched as entire houses floated down the hollow, some later crashing into a small bridge downstream. Clearly and simply, said the report, people living downstream from the Buffalo Mining Companys coal refuse dam at Saunders were the victims of gross negligence.. For additional stories at this website on the history of coal and coal mining, see for example, the following: Paradise: 1971 (about a John Prine song, strip mining in Muhlenberg County, KY, and the demise of a small town); Mountain Warrior (profile of Kentucky author and coal-field activist, Harry Caudill, noted for his famous book, Night Comes to The Cumberlands and his life-long critique of Appalachian strip mining); Giant Shovel on I-70 (about strip mining in southeastern Ohio during the 1960s and `70s and the use of giant strip-mining shovels there); Coal & The Kennedys, (featuring Kennedy family involvement with Appalachian coal communities, deep mine safety, environmental protection, and related political issues, 1960s-2010s); Sixteen Tons, 1950s (the famous Tennessee Ernie Ford song and some coal mining history, 1940s-1960s); and, G.E.s Hot Coal Ad, 2005 (a General Electric TV ad that features a new breed of coal miner). Were going to live here as long as he works here, she said, adding that without the dam, we could be over here safely.. We publish articles grounded in peer-reviewed research and provide free access to that research for all of our readers. Help us keep publishing stories that provide scholarly context to the news. Left over from Scots-Irish immigrants? Click for copy. The Buffalo Creek disaster, however, did galvanize concern about strip mining and coal safety in Congress, and helped to spur passage of regulatory bills on the House side during Congressional debate in the early 1970s. Many coal waste impoundments had to be either modified or closed to eliminate hazardous conditions. The socio-psychology of all this was probed and covered in an award-winning 1976 book by Kai T. Erikson. One lawsuit was filed by the state of West Virginia, while another class action lawsuit was filed by survivors of the flood. The failure occurred a minute or so before 8:00 a.m. February 26, 1972, and was solely the cause of the Buffalo Creek flood. As if some foreign enemy had flown in and nuked the place. Buffalo Creek Flood survivor Fred Pierson gives his account of how the flood made him conquer his fear of water during a memorial service at the Buffalo Creek Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 24. [Gerald M Stern] -- This volume describes the Buffalo Creek Flood -- and also the investigation and legal actions that followed. Still, the worries for citizens living near either kind of impoundment are equally valid, whether of the mine-site or powerplant variety. /08. November 20, 1968: Farmington coal mine disaster Harry Caudill's "Theirs Be The Power". Children of Disaster: Clinical Observations at Buffalo Creek, American Journal of Psychiatry, March 1976, pp.306-12. March 1972Arnold & Porter agreed to represent the Buffalo Creek Citizens 30, No. Liz Tackett, retired former director of the Buffalo Creek Memorial Library, opens up a memorial service for survivors of the Buffalo Creek Flood on Friday, Feb. 24. June 7, 1974Judge Hall declined to act on Pittstons motion to dismiss plaintiffs document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Children walk along the tracks in what remains of their community along Buffalo Creek on Feb. 27, 1972, The people are prisoners of the coal industry.. But it brings back memories. Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. two telephone books worth of victim statements. The state then cited Pittston for violations but failed to follow up with inspections. We have had a couple of conversations since he moved in and that is how I found out he was from Logan, more specifically, Man, West Virginia. process loss claims without admitting any responsibility. Consumer Information and $50 million punitive damages. Gertie Moore, a former Logan County Schools bus driver, tearfully recalls two children who perished in the Buffalo Creek Flood during a memorial service at the Buffalo Creek Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 24. They lost loved ones, their homes, their neighbors, their community. and submitted other discovery requests to Pittston. 1. West Virginia has the most with 108. Homes were left in splinters Railroad tracks yanked up and twisted. Those parts of the book are the choices regarding: who to name as defendant; what court to file in; and what type of suit to file. The water was there, and then it was gone Edna Baisden And on the morning of February 26, 1972, just after 8:00 am, that worst fear was realized. 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