History stopped on the day of the flood.
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Editor's Note: The disastrous Buffalo Creek, West Virginia flood occurred on February 26, 1972. The sudden collapse of the Pittston Company's (the local coal company and absentee landlord) massive refuse pile dam unleashed 132 million gallons of water and coal waste materials on the unsuspecting residents of Buffalo Creek. The rampaging wave of water and sludge traveled down the creek in waves of between twenty and thirty feet and at speeds sometimes approaching thirty miles per hour. Buffalo Creek's sixteen small towns were devastated by the deluge, over 125 people were killed, and over four thousand survivors were left homeless.
Kai T. Erikson is professor of sociology and chairman of the American Studies Program at Yale University. Formerly he taught at the University of Pittsburgh and Emory University. He is a former president of the Society for the Study of Social Problems (1970–71).
The conclusions expressed in this article are based on personal interviews with the flood's survivors, legal depositions, psychiatric evaluations, letters from survivors to their attorneys, and answers to mail questionnaires developed and administered by the author. The excerpts have been presented without supporting documentation in the interests of space.
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Erikson, K.T. Trauma at Buffalo Creek. Soc 35, 153–161 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02838138
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02838138