"The American Experience" Th...

[first lines] Narrator: On the 31st day of May, 1889, more than two thousand lives were lost when the South Fork Dam collapsed. An entire lake, 20 million tons of water, crashed down the Conemaugh valley through a half dozen towns on its way to Johnstown, Pennsylvania. It wiped out nearly everything in between, but by many accounts, Johnstown suffered the most gruesome and disturbing fate of all. Narrator: It was 4:00. At half past 3, there had been a Johnstown. Now, there was none. Narrator: June first, 1889. That morning opened dark and dreary. Great drops of rain fell occasionally and another storm seemed imminent. Everyone felt thankful that the weather remained cold to slow the decay of the bodies lying everywhere.