Coal Crimes of Buffalo Creek

Let us imagine that one daylightlight a indwelling disaster hits your town, you watched everyone you know lose their homes, and for some, their lives. Your heart view most promising would be skewed for some time, but who could you blame? Nature? matinee idol? While tragic, an venture of nature or god most lots carries no great amount of blame with it. This is non the case in the all everywhereawe Creek incident however. It is important to note that the quite a little of the Buffalo Creek atomic number 18a were deeply traumatized by this event, and their trust violated by those answerable for this incident.The Buffalo Creek incident is one of the most wide studied disasters in the U. S. and as Kai T. Erikson writes in his prologue to Everything in Its pathway It was a fairly contained disaster, as such things go, having taken push through on a scale small enough to allow one to see it whole,. on that point were a number of variables leading into that day, the day the dam gave way, and doneout the escape of this paper I intend to trace the pattern back to the descent of this disaster, the creator of a situation that certainly does deserve blame.What it comes down to in the aftermath of this disaster is whether to cast the guilt on the coal federation that created the environment for this disaster, or the people of the vale who some might hypothecate had failed to save themselves. The coal familiarity would trivialize the loss that the people of this valley community had undergone and try to label the flood an act of God. (Stern) I however, soundly took the side of these mountain people as I depict about the coal industrys molestation of their land, and the destruction of WV life as they had once known it.The coal industry creeped its way into the lives of western hemisphere Virginians over the better part of a century. Although coal had always been moneyed in West Virginias land and it was know for sometime to be that way, coal companies did not gain access to most areas of WV including Logan County until the very early 1900s as railroads invaded the hills and valleys. Coal Company employment greatly changed the lives of W. Virginians over time, bringing them down from the mountain farms they used to live on, to factory same(p) homes constructed in crowded valley mining towns.The miners of Logan County were also influenced heavily from the keep company to preserve non-union workers which is to the ultimate benefit of the industry rather than the miner. The popularity of the studies into this disaster are not only beneficial to our response to disasters that are both valet made and acts of god, but also to promote the protection and safety of a companys workers through stricter safety guidelines.On the morning of February 26, 1972 132 cardinal gallons of b wishing water and coal waste forced its way through the impoundments that the Buffalo Mining Company had built in three stages over the span of two or three years. The Pittston Coal Company did not feel they needed to say sorry or offer revenge for the damages caused by their poor management and supervision of dam bodily structure, this act is what sparked the defiance in the people victimized by the flood. (Erikson)Immediately followers the disaster Pittston began doing damage control for the protection of the company and tried to place all of the responsibility away from themselves during the ensuing legal battles. Pittston lawyers immediately began treating the people left behind in the wake of the disaster as dominance adversaries in court action, questioning them not about the commonwealth of their living conditions but instead about their ill will against the company (Erikson).During one of the interviews included in Everything in Its Path a causality mine worker said Lawyers had beared him Do you get to any catchy feelings against Pittston? and Do you believe theyll talk to people? . While these actions may have seemed like sensible legal maneuvers in Pittstons legal team, they turn out to seed a deep resentment toward the coal company in the minds of Buffalo Creeks residents. The second mistake Pittston made, as describe in The Buffalo Creek Disaster, was them stating that the break in the dam was caused by floodingan Act of God. (Stern). Throughout the works of both Kai T. Erikson and Gerald M. Stern at that place is a general consensus that the valley community being a by and large religious group of people were provoked by this statement. In this regard as Pittston ultimately did more to embolden their adversaries than they did to protect themselves from monetary loss in the end.Pittston Coal Company and the Buffalo Mining Company are the responsible parties for this man made disaster from the beginning of its creation until the day of the flood. The Buffalo Mining Co. nd Pittston both failed to learn from past mistakes during the construction of the dam system. Pittston ignored the poor q uality of the dams built, previous complaints about the lack of emergency run off systems, and multiple previous failures of the dams which were simply patched and reinforced in the same faulty manner as the lord was made. In March of 1971 several Coal Company officials noted that in that keep was a significant slumping in dam 3 and it was estimated at cl to 200 feet wide across the face of the dam and 20 to 30 feet from the face back. by testimony of Ben Tudor, General Superintendent, Buffalo Mining Company. afterward that same month it was recorded that a West Virginia Department of natural Resources inspector had listed a . . . lack of emergency spillway or overspill system from upper impoundment. (In this instance, upper impoundment refers to Dam No. 3. ). in spite of these and many other alarming findings, no significant improvements were made originally the dam systems failure in 1972. (Kelley). On the day of the disaster, citizens of Buffalo Creek Valley had little or no exemplar from Pittston or the Buffalo Mining Co. f the impending danger until the beleaguer of water had descended upon them. Pittston Coal neglected to warn The Mining Bureau, the National Guard, the submit Police, and even the Logan County Sheriffs office. (Stern). In Everything in Its Path Erikson includes several accounts of victims who had been minded(p) no warning at all that there was danger of a flood at that time. The importance of this disaster and its aftermath has permanently moved(p) the way we handle disaster prevention, relief, post traumatic counseling, and hopefully approaching litigation.While the magnifying glass initially was held over the coal industry and specifically on the legal battle that the people of Buffalo Creek ultimately would win, its scope has continued to broaden over years and will remain an important learning tool for use in varieties of disasters on the man and humanity. Consider the lessons to be learned by all companies and corp orations in respect to how they monitor the safety of their employees and the communities they have potential impact on.I ask you to consider the victims of the Buffalo Creek flood as brave pioneers into the adult male of disasters, and appreciate the advancements that have been made possible by their bravery. References Erikson, K. T. (1976). Everything in its Path Destruction of Community in the Buffalo Creek Flood. New York, NY Simon & axerophthol Schuster Paperbacks. Kelley, J. H. , Dr. (1973). The Buffalo Creek Flood and Disaster Official Report from the governors Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry. West Virginia Archives & History.