Wow. I'm not OP but I'm really amazed to see a story about the Johnstown Flood on the front page of Hacker News. I'm originally from the area and I even wrote a

Wow. I'm not OP but I'm really amazed to see a story about the Johnstown Flood on the front page of Hacker News. I'm originally from the area and I even wrote a large research paper about this when I was in college. The short story is that many of the rich elite of the late 1880s would vacation near a man made dam in South Fork PA. The hills of the Alleghenies are ominous with a water migration route that leads straight into downtown Johnstown, which was then a bustling steel town. On May 31, 1889 a historic rain caused the dam to fail. This caused a wall of water to crash upon Johnstown, leading to 2209 deaths and what was effectively the destruction of the city. It was one of the first big stories in the post-antebellum nation and also was one of the first disasters which the American Red Cross and Clara Barton were onsite to help with. The common story and moral derived from said story is that the rich patrons that owned the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club did not maintain the dam which caused the dam to fail which was responsible for the fatalities caused by the flood. Lawsuits were dismissed as the flood was thought to have been an "act of God". It could be seen today (and was when now-famous historian David McCullough wrote his book about this 1968) as being indicative of how rich and the 1% lead to the direct damage and destruction of the lower class. As someone who has researched it, there is far more to it than that. But, kinda cool to see it posted here.