Friday, September 27, 2013

Wondering why I didn't know the geography.

I found an interesting article about how one baby escaped death during the Johnstown Flood or the Great Flood of 1889.  This infant floated all the way from Johnstown to Pittsburgh on the floor boards of a ruined house.  That is a distance of 75 miles.  I lived in Pennsylvania for the first 36 years or so of my life, so I thought that I knew the area pretty well, especially the rivers.  I spent many a happy day and night on the Allegheny, canoeing, boating, swimming, fishing, and most anything else connected to the river.  Both sets of my grandparents lived along the river, although in different towns.  Therefore, when I read the above story I said that just can't be, I thought that any river going through Johnstown would flow south or east toward the Atlantic ocean.

I then dug out my trusty road atlas and looked at the pages that showed the areas between Johnstown and Pittsburgh.  Low and behold, there are rivers that connect the two towns.  Amazing!!  Why didn't I know that?  I guess that just goes to show that even if we are well acquainted with an area or things, we just may not know everything about them.  That goes for people, too.

It is hard to imagine the devastation a flood of that magnitude and with all that water released at one time can do.  I found a couple of pictures on the Internet that may help to show damage caused.  This first one is of the dam that gave away:


And this one is a picture of where the town used to be.  Unbelievable!!
 

Now, you all keep yourselves and your powder dry and have wonderful day, you hear?

9 comments:

  1. HEYYY,,, I want to hear the end of that story,,,Left handing here,,,

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  2. Yea there sure to more to it then that....

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  3. It all seems to change after a flood, doesn't it?

    Lots of destruction in those pictures!

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  4. Trouble and Joey, sorry, that is all the article I read said about it. If I get time I will google it and see if there more to the story.

    H.J., Hydrostatic pressure is really strong, since most fluids like water can not be compressed. Can you imagine how bad it would be if air couldn't be compressed. A slight breeze would bruise you.

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  5. Made me get out my atlas... my great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents settled in Sommerset after leaving NJ in the mid 1700's. They are buried at Turkeyfoot, PA, near Confluence. I think it's the Youghogheny that flows through there. Not sure what it flows into, but I do know that in Pittsburgh, the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio merge and they all become the Ohio. Somewhere along that highway between Ohio and Maryland you cross over the "Eastern Continental Divide".... and supposedly that separates the water that flow into the Gulf of Mexico from the water that flow into the Atlantic. Guess the Allegheny decided it like the Gulf.

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    1. The Allegheny is just like all us old yankeys, we like to flow south where it is warm (grin). I sure hope I can get back up there soon. (before it gets cold, of course)

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  6. guess I'll google to see how the little baby lived ... and yes... born and raised in Arkansas but never did much exploring of my home state until later years. gorgeous around heah

    I just found out recently that ... the only federally protected ghost town in the country is in Rush, Arkansas by the Buffalo National River!

    not much on ghost towns but I think I need to investigate .... gorgeous area

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    1. Wow, I didn't know that about the ghost town. I belong to the G.P.A.A. which has a couple of weekend gold digs at the ghost town of Stanton, Arizona. Been there a couple of times. They refurbished most of the buildings and put in a nice RV park.

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