Buffalo Creek Disaster, February 1972

The Buffalo Creek flood was a disaster that occurred on February 26, 1972, when a coal slurry impoundment dam managed by the Pittston Coal Company and located on a hillside in Logan County, West Virginia, burst, four days after having been declared "satisfactory" by a federal mine inspector. The resulting flood unleashed approximately 132 million US gallons (500,000 cubic meters; 500 million liters of black waste water, cresting over 30 feet (9.1 m) high, upon the residents of sixteen coal towns along Buffalo Creek Hollow. Out of a population of 5,000 people, 125 were killed, 1,121 were injured, and over 4,000 were left homeless. 507 houses were destroyed, in addition to 44 mobile homes and 30 businesses. _______ The background music for this video is "Everything In It's Path," performed by Robert Gregory Shaw.