Aloha, My Friend,
On May 31st, 1889, high uphill above the booming city of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, sat the private, gated resort of the millionaire steel and coal magnates. The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club was the playground of Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Mellon, Henry Frick and their ilk. As is sometimes the want of the rich and famous, pretty and practical took precedence over safe and prudent. The 400 acre lake that made up this retreat was held bound by what at that time was the world’s largest earthen dam. Over a few years it was weakened to pave a road across it and the overflow pipes were removed for resale as scrap metal by one of its members.
Several days before a great storm was born in the Midwestern States and upon arriving in Pennsylvania it dumped over 10 inches of rain in 24 hours.
Flash forward to today, almost all of the damage and death caused by Hurricane Irene is the byproduct of the rain and subsequent flooding.
Water seems so nice, so benign when you are taking a bath, soap in hand, or walking in some afternoon sun shower to be with someone you love but on this day in 1989, when the levee broke it became a 60 foot high, 20 ton wall of mud, rocks and fallen trees, railroad cars, dead bodies and livestock coming at them at 40 mph down the Little Conemaugh River to Johnstown. When the 5 billion gallon wash reached the far outskirts of town almost 10% of the population was gone; whole families mercilessly erased, parents left childless, children made orphans.
On a bright note, when one resident’s wife, child and housekeeper were swept from their roof the family black Newfoundland dog jumped in and rescued them.
This event essentially gave birth to the American Red Cross, this was the first major disaster it responded to.
The state of Pennsylvania knew that the immediate recovery and restoration would be expensive to the cash strapped state but it was a burden that would have to be shouldered by all not just the unfortunate victims so they implemented a tax increase across the state.
Money and assistance poured in from across the nation and as far away as Russia, Turkey and Australia.
Even Seattle pledged thousands of dollars for relief.
And 6 days later, almost to the hour, careless playing with fire brought Seattle down.
It began in the waterfront district where all of the buildings were made of wood because of the abundance of forest land surrounding the region. Here the first steam sawmill in the Pacific Northwest was built and owned by Henry Yesler, one of the original settlers – except for the Snoqualmie, Tulalip, Swinomish, Lummi, Skagit, Makah and Duwamish Indians.
Besides cheap lumber the saw mill also made a plethoric amount of highly flammable sawdust that further fueled and exacerbated the spread of the fire.
As a fun fact, and I do enjoy my factoids, from this era in Seattle the term “Skid Road” was added to American culture. Skid Road was used to describe the hill that the loggers would use to direct the felled trees to the mill. The skids were the logs that ran perpendicular like corduroy to guide the trees and prevent erosion. Skid Road also divided the rich socialites from the working class hoipollio and rowdy waterfront ruffians.
Ask me later and I will tell you the origins of “Above Board.”
Although there was only one death the damages were almost as catastrophic as those in Johnstown and when the community leaders looked around at their city of ashes they recognized that in times of need we are all in the “Brotherhood of Man” and the “Children of God” and that you help when the help is needed not just when it is convenient so they unanimously agreed to send their pledged money to Johnstown rather than use it for their own tragedy.
I mention Henry Frick above in this tale. In his lifetime he was regarded as, “The Most Hated Man In America” because of his ruthlessness and lack of morality and as recently as 2009 he was voted the “Worst CEO of All Time.”
After back-to-back earthquake and hurricane in the Northeast, when I read that Rep. Eric Cantor from Virginia hesitates to give disaster relief until he can off-set spending in the budget I shake my head in wonder and tilt it slightly and ready my right hand to raise it and nominate him to dethrone Frick.
But, maybe it’s just me.
Maybe it is that I never read the Sermon on the Mount close enough.