The Flood at Johnstown City, Pennsylvania

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Johnstown Floods
On May 31, 1889, at 3:00 p.m., the South Fork Reservoir collapsed, dumping millions of tons of water across the valley. Johnstown and the nearby communities found themselves in the path of the deluge. The Johnstown flooding of 1889 will go down in history as being one of the nation's worst natural catastrophes. It was the single most significant loss of human life in a day in the United States before 9/11. In the two days leading up to the storm, it had already been raining hard. It had stopped raining for long enough for the Memorial Day parade in Johnstown, but now much of the city's streets were under 3 meters of water.
As the valley was steadily overwhelmed, many residents had already transferred their possessions to the upper floors of their houses The South Fork dam was one of the earliest dams to be built in the country. South Fork Dam in Pennsylvania was a rock and earth-filled dam. The dam's primary function at the time of its construction in 1852 was to supply water to a section of the Pennsylvania Canal. The dam's drainage works included a rock-lined barrier with five gates for releasing different flow levels and a spillway carved into the stone along its eastern embankment.[Wharton-Michael, Patty. “The Johnstown Flood of 1889.” Journalism History, vol. 38, no. 1, 2012, pp. 23–33., /edu/flood/background.html]
Even though the proposals called for a 150-foot-wide spillway, the actual spillway was only about 70 feet n length. In 1862, the drainage works culvert failed due to inadequate maintenance. As a result, a part of the dam was wiped out.[. ASDSO. “Description & Background.” ASDSO Lessons Learned, Lessons Learned from Dam Incidents and Failures, 2021, https://damfailures.org/case-study/south-fork-dam-pennsylvania-1889/]
Benjamin Ruff bought the damaged dam, including the surrounding property, in 1879, intending to repair the reservoir and develop the land into a retreat spot for the prosperous. Thus, the region became South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club under Ruff's management, with notable members such as Andrew Carnegie. During the rebuilding of the main dam, Benjamin Ruff and other affiliates of the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club changed the plan to build their dream resort. The dam peak had to be lowered by about 1 meter to facilitate carriage passage over it. They fixed a net screen placed inside the drainage way to avoid loss of fish during flow across it, and the flushed section of the dam was repaired by random filling of mud, brush, and hay. Lower-level drainage works for dewatering the dam were also removed. The collapsed low-level discharge conduits and parts of the conduits' masonry wall outlet were cut but not substituted.[. ASDSO, 1.]
The South Fork reservoir's upgrades and modifications caused a slew of problems in the structure's capacity to withstand a severe storm. After lowering the dam summit and reducing the freeboard, the spillway's power dwindled significantly. Owing to debris accumulation, the net panels in the spillway reduced drainage capability even further. Furthermore, the cement used to rebuild the embankment rested, resulting in a low spot on t...