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On the morning of February 26, 1972, the failure of three coal slurry dams let loose a tidal wave of destruction upon the Buffalo Creek hollow in Logan county, West Virginia. With little warning to residents, more than 130 million gallons of dark floodwaters tore through more than a dozen communities in the hollow. By the day’s end, hundreds of homes and vehicles were destroyed, thousands were left homeless, and 125 men, women, and children were dead. The flood, known as the Buffalo Creek disaster, is considered one of the worst disasters in both American and Mountain State history. “The only warning we had was just a neighbor woman had spotted it and just pulled in front of our house and hollered, ‘Run, the dam has broke!’” remembered survivor Shirley Marcum. “And then you could hear the roar of it and… you could see it. I saw my neighbors’ houses leave. I watched them crumble. I seen trees, logs, cars, slate, slush, you name it and it was in that.”

West virginiaUnited statesBuffalo creekUpper big branchMarshall universityElk riverWest virginiansVictorm deptaLynda ann ewenJuliaa lewisRalph naderStephen youngScarlett oharaKen hechlerMannix porterfieldWilliam faulkner