The Johnstown Flood of 1889 has been the subject of many books, films, songs, a national park, a museum, and even made into an episode of a 1947 Mighty Mouse cartoon, the difference being one with a happy ending. The real event did not have a cartoon ending. At the time the flood was responsible for the largest American civilian death toll ever recorded.
The South Fork dam, 14 miles from Johnstown, Pennsylvania fell into disrepair and recent heavy rains filled the reservoir far higher than the engineers who built the dam had ever intended. Warnings were sent by telegraph but they were ignored. On Friday, May 31, 1889 the water began overflowing and then the dam suddenly collapsed, unleashing 20,000,000 tons of water into the Conemaugh River Valley, destroying everything in its path. Before the flood hit East Conemaugh, train engineer John Hess tried to warn the residents by tying his train whistle down and racing to town ahead of the wave but there was not enough time to get to safety for many. When the water reached the town, the wave was cresting nearly 40 feet high. 2,209 people drowned, crushed by debris, or were burned in fires caused by the blockage of debris at the Old Stone Bridge (see picture at top). Johnstown was devastated.
The Topeka state journal. (Topeka, Kan.), 14 June 1894.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/...&proxValue=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=445
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