Buffalo Creek Flood

A river valley can feel like the safest place in the world until the water comes with a roar. We’re telling the story of the Buffalo Creek disaster, the 1972 West Virginia flood that started with a coal waste dam built on sludge and ended with a fast-moving wall of water tearing through a chain of tight-knit mining towns. 

We walk through how coal mining shaped Buffalo Creek Valley, why the impoundment dams were constructed the way they were, and what inspectors found when they finally took a close look. You’ll hear how residents begged officials to take Dam No. 3 seriously, how a storm pushed the pool to the brink, and how the failure triggered a chain reaction that sent roughly 130 million gallons downstream. We track the flood’s path from one community to the next and unpack the staggering aftermath: lives lost, injuries, homes destroyed, bridges and roads wiped out, and thousands of people suddenly without shelter. 

From there, we follow the recovery and the reckoning. Relief groups and government agencies scramble to provide food, medical help, communications, and temporary housing, while investigations argue over fault and the company tries to frame the tragedy as an act of God. We also get into the legal fight that highlighted psychological trauma like PTSD and survivor syndrome, the settlements that followed, and the long arc of environmental damage and reclamation that took decades to reverse. If you care about disaster history, dam safety, coal mining regulation, or corporate accountability, this story delivers hard lessons with real names and real consequences. 

If you like the show, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a rating or review. What part of Buffalo Creek hits you the hardest?

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Special thank you to Lunarfall Audio for producing and doing all the heavy lifting on audio editing since April 13, 2025, the Murder of Christopher Meyer episode https://lunarfallaudio.com/

Transcript

Welcome And Sponsor Break

Coal Boom And Valley Towns

Building Dams From Mining Waste

Warnings Ignored And Inspections Failed

The Night The Water Rose

Dam Collapse And Flood Wave

Death Toll And Valley Destruction

Relief Efforts And Federal Response

Housing Trailers And Jobs Afterward

Investigations And Blame

Lawsuits PTSD And Settlements

Memorials Environmental Recovery And New Laws

Ratings Reviews And How To Reach Us

SPEAKER_00 0:01

A house on the river sounds great. Get a little dock, maybe a boat or two. Sit out by the water listening to the sounds of nature. Gentle slapping of the waves against the river. The flow of the river as it starts to rise at an ever increasing pace. The roar of an incoming tidal wave as it smashes down your neighbor's house. Just another lazy day on the river. Like on February 26th, 1972, when a dam broke and flooded the Buffalo Creek Valley. So, what happened? I'm Andrew, and this is History's A Disaster. Tonight we're diving into the raging waters of the Buffalo Creek disaster. A damn disaster that ended with the deaths of over 120 people and left thousands homeless. And tonight's episode is brought to you by Otter Impoundment. Did your car disappear after using a handicapped spot? Did you lose your car after double parking? Because you'll only be just a minute. Well look no further. We have it down at Otter Impoundment. And you can have it right back after you pay the small$300 towing fee,$83.57 storage fee plus the$20 administrative fee, the$15 processing fee, and the$5 walking fee. Tax is not included. The Buffalo Creek Valley in Logan County, West Virginia is made up of a bunch of little towns strung out along the Buffalo Creek stream just 40 miles south of Charleston. These small towns started popping up in the mid-1800s to support the coal mining industry that was spreading throughout West Virginia. In 1904, a rail line was put in to link Logan County with Charleston to make moving the coal easier and help to expand the coal mining industry in the county. With the expansion, more coal was being pulled out. More coal being pulled out meant more shit was being dumped into Buffalo Creek when the coal was cleaned off prior to being shipped out. Eventually, the Buffalo Mining Company, a subsidiary of the Pittston Coal Company, would own the mining operations along Buffalo Creek and they opened up mine number five on the banks of the Middle Fork. Starting in 1962, they built dam number one on the Middle Fork. The dam was made from coal mining waste and sludge that came off the coal during the cleaning process. The dam was meant to act as a kind of filter. Black shitty wastewater was pumped into a pool behind the dam, and cleaner water would eventually leak through after leaving some of the impurities and waste behind in the dam. Eventually, this first dam would fill up with fine waste and would not be enough. So they built a second dam. And of course, they couldn't be bothered with doing any sort of cleanup or prep work before building the new dam. They just built it right on top of the sludge and waste for the first dam and whatever was already on the banks of the middle fork. And they didn't even bother with any sort of proper building techniques. They just bulldozed the waste across the valley, shoved it where they wanted it, and left it at that. Surely it'll be fine. Beavers make dams all the time. Surely, we're smarter than them, so anything humans make is definitely better than some dumb animal. But soon enough, dam number two wasn't enough. So, they repeated the same process and built a third dam, and eventually a fourth. In 1966, a coal refuse bank similar to the ones on Buffalo Creek in Emberfan, Wales, broke and sent tons of sludge into town and hitting a school, killing over 150 people, mostly school kids. Something I'll probably cover at some point, just not today. Anyways, this accident caused some panic in the states, which led to the inspection of multiple dams across the country, including those on Buffalo Creek. The inspection didn't go so well for Buffalo Mining Company. The dams came back deficient. Most specifically, they singled out damn as being fucked up with serious potential for failure. And of course, the mining company did nothing about it. Something that worried the residents of Buffalo Creek. They would complain and write letter after letter to the governor about dam number three and that something needs to be done about it before people get hurt. In March of 1971, the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources came in to conduct an inspection on Dam 3. Again, they deemed it deficient and noted the lack of an emergency spillway or any type of overflow system to prevent the water from getting too high. By February 23rd, 1972, Buffalo Mining Company still did nothing to fix any of the issues. In fact, they said that things were a little worse when they said they did have an overflow on dam number three and it was all kinds of blocked up. Following this announcement on the 23rd, a storm system moved into the valley, a storm that would dump a ton of rain into the pool behind dam number 3 Friday night. The water rose to within 3 feet of the top of the dam when it started to crack. And again, knowing the water was reaching a dangerous level, the mining company neglected to inform anyone of what was going on. By 8 a.m. Saturday morning, the dam failed completely, releasing millions of gallons of water. Dam 2 quickly followed as it failed, releasing more water that quickly swept away Dam 1. By time Dam 1 failed, over 130 million gallons of raging water was sent downstream towards the blissfully unaware communities. By 802, 20-foot waves traveling at roughly 7 feet a second were smashing through Saunders, just 4,500 feet downstream from the dams. 18 people from the small community would not survive the flood. Within 15 minutes of the failure, Dam 3 had completely emptied into Buffalo Creek and smashed through the town of Pardee, claiming the lives of four more residents. Laredo would get hit next by the floodwater, losing 22 residents in the process. Glundale was hit next with the death toll rising. 58 residents died here in the flood. The floodwaters passed through Stowe next, claiming four more lives. Kreits would follow soon after with five more dead. 825 Latrobe was hit, losing seven in the process. Five minutes later, Robinette was hit, losing three to the flood. Amherstdale was next as the flood claimed seven more victims. By 9 a.m., the waters roared through Accoville, where the Buffalo Creek Elementary School was. By 11 a.m., the waters would reach the town of Man, where it would empty into the Gulundot River, bringing the flood to end three hours after it started. Man would soon become the central point of recovery for the entire valley. 118 were killed in the flood, with another seven victims who were never recovered. The floodwaters injured another 1,100. Over 4,000 people were suddenly left homeless after the flood completely destroyed 551 homes and seriously damaged another 273. 10 bridges fell to the flood that destroyed hundreds of miles of roads and highways. After the flood, the Salvation Army came marching in to greatly assist the survivors, many of whom had lost everything they owned to the floods. They passed out over 190,000 meals, set up multiple centers where victims could get clothes and food, and helped turn the schools into shelters for all the now homeless victims. They assisted in some way, shape or form to over 4,000 families, and they were not alone in the fight to help support the stricken communities. People across the country sent in offers of help in whatever form they may need. Whether it be in the form of opening up their homes to victims, or in the form of financial support or clothes donations. They would in fact get so much in clothing donations, they had to ask people to please stop sending clothes. They had way more than they could possibly need. Which says a lot. How much clothing is too much for over 4,000 victims? Other organizations would soon step in to bring in generators and medical supplies. The West Virginia government stepped up to provide support to the people of Buffalo Creek right after the flood. The state police came in and set up a temporary morgue, protected damaged property from looters, and took plenty of pictures to document the damage in the valley. The National Guard was brought in to run search and rescue operations, conduct evacuations, and build emergency bridges and showers. The Department of Natural Resources set up a communication system within the valley to reestablish communications throughout the area. The Department of Highways checked out the roads and put together a cleanup effort to work towards being able to eventually rebuild. The West Virginia Health Council started a clinic to give out typhoid vaccines, deal with any and all medical emergencies, and arranged for the injured to be transported to the hospital if and when needed. The day after the flood, President Richard Nixon, during a trip to Shanghai, declared the Buffalo Creek flood a major disaster, which opened up the way for federal assistance. The U.S. Bureau of Mines would launch an investigation into the causes of the dam failure. The Federal Office of Civil Defense brought in helicopters from Fort Belvoir and Fort Mead to assist the National Guard with search and rescue operations, as well as bringing in pumps to empty out any water still remaining on Middle Fork. They were also helped out by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with water purification, search and rescue, and aftermath cleanup. The Office of Emergency Preparedness helped to coordinate the different relief efforts, as well as giving out information to victims on the different relief programs available. The Pittston Coal Company let them use the Buffalo Creek mining headquarters for recovery operations. Because obviously they are such great people, and they wanted to do their part to help out after this outrageous act of God, as they put it, because it was, you know, in no way their fault at all. With rescue efforts winding down and everyone being taken care of for the moment, they turned their attention to rebuilding, getting some semblance of normalcy back with housing and jobs since the flood pretty much wiped both of those out for many of the victims. Without adequate housing, families were forced to stay in the cramped shelters at the schools. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development stepped in and set up trailers for the flood victims. After a lot of the cleanup in the Buffalo Creek Valley had cleared most of the debris, small neighborhoods of these trailers were put in to finally get people out of the schools. The West Virginia government took care of the rent so they wouldn't have to worry about living expenses until they got back on their feet and eventually buy the trailers they were living in. Getting jobs for the now vast numbers of unemployed victims would end up being a bit more of a challenge. A lot of people and too few available jobs were an issue. So the West Virginia Department of Employment set up new offices to try to help all these people find jobs with a heavy focus on construction. There was plenty of rebuilding to be done and a lot of roads that needed to be fixed and rebuilt. Plus, there was a push for more recreational projects in the valley. There were petitions passed around for things like a public pool and tennis courts to be put in for the kids. So a committee was put together to get the money for the projects. Fundraisers were held, and local businesses jumped at the chance to help out in any way they could. In March 1972, Governor Arch Moore created an ad hoc commission of inquiry into the Buffalo Creek flood to investigate the reasons for the failure of Dam 3. The commission was supposed to determine who was at fault for the collapse of the dam and the resulting loss of life and destruction of property. And of course, it was suspiciously made up of people who had direct ties to the coal mining industry or in some way sympathetic to them. The commission would go on to interview witnesses, hear testimony, and talk to experts to figure out why this happened and who was responsible for it, and how it could be avoided in the future. In its conclusion, the commission placed the blame on the Pittston Coal Company, but also said that the lack of laws and regulations by state and federal governments contributed to the failure. It found that improper construction, weak foundation, inadequate overflow, and lack of monitoring all led to the catastrophic failure of the dam. It wrote the Pittston Company as owner of Dam No. 3 was responsible for its safety and the safety of the people in Buffalo Creek Valley as far as the dam was concerned. It failed to meet these responsibilities in multiple ways. They would also go on to say that no evidence of an act of God was found by the commission. Apparently, God wasn't able to come in to testify. Not trusting the state to actually do their jobs and bow down to the coal industry, locals formed their own commission to look into the damn failure. They did their own investigations and held their own hearings regarding the flood and its causes within the bounds of the valley at the Buffalo Grade School in Eccoville. They obviously concluded that the Pittston Coal Company was absolutely 100% guilty of murdering everyone that died in the flood. But of course, since this was a citizens commission, none of the shitheads at Pittston would ever be held criminally accountable. Norman Williams, the head of the Citizens Commission, as well as Deputy Director of the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources, also used this as a push to the legislature to outlaw strip mining. Eventually, over 100 families would file a lawsuit against the Pitston Coal Company using the Arnold and Porter Law Firm. This lawsuit attempted to address the psychological and communal losses that had been suffered in the tragedy rather than just property losses. Dennis Prince, a 52-year-old monoelectrician, was the chief plaintiff of the case. He survived the flood but had to watch helplessly as his wife was swept away. All plaintiffs over the age of six provided a statement about their experiences. Each person involved in the case would end up talking to both physicians and psychologists, and the effects of survivor syndrome and PTSD were observed in everyone. Pittston Coal Company filed a motion to dismiss the cases brought forward by people who were not present in Buffalo Creek at the time of the flood. However, the law firm shot that shit down. A settlement would eventually be reached before the case went to trial. The plaintiffs received$13.5 million, and$2 million of it was set aside for victims under the age of 18. Arnold and Porter's firm put in thousands of hours of work and helped take some of the money to create a foundation to help rebuild the Buffalo Creek Valley. The money from the foundation would eventually help to build a community center, equip the first fire station, and created a new health clinic. In 1974, the state of West Virginia sued Pittston Coal Company in state and federal courts for$50 million compensation for the state's damage and destroyed bridges, roads, and schools, as well as$50 million for punitive damages. The suit would be dragged out until 1977 when a settlement was finally reached. Governor Moore settled the suit in one of his last actions before leaving office three days later for the extremely lucrative sum of$1 million. And I can only guess at what would be a nice little nest egg for him. He would go on to get re-elected in 1985 and served a total of 12 years as governor. After leaving office, he was convicted in 1990 on multiple fraud charges, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice, and sent to federal prison for three years. So, fuck this shithead. In 1986, the federal government sued West Virginia to recover the money they owed for things like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers clearing out land to place all those HUD trailers. The federal government argued that West Virginia had just sued the Pittston Coal Company and wreaked the benefit, and what a benefit it was. So, the state had to be brought to the Supreme Court in order to repay the government. West Virginia owed them nearly$6 million through October 18, 1982, plus nearly$3,000 for every day thereafter until the judgment was entered. So it's a good thing Governor Moore got an extremely rich settlement to help with this. In 1973, a memorial was put up in a small park containing a small wooden picnic shelter, benches, a podium containing a Bible and visitor register, and a victim's monument. The Buffalo Creek Memorial Library was dedicated on February 26, 1973, in Mad West Virginia. It was originally a single carousel building. Since then, it has grown to house a large children's room and a collection of over 25,000 written audio and video documents, including information about the flood in 1972. In 1977, Congress passed the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act in order to create a federally mandated balance between coal mining and environmental protection. Prior to the flood, the Buffalo Creek area was a favorite fishing spot for many. However, the flood so badly fucked up the river, no fish or aquatic life could survive in it. It would take decades of cleanup and reclamation work before the river could once again support life. In 2006, they began reintroducing trout into the river. By 2022, 50 years after the flood, trout would once again be plentiful in the area. And that was the Buffalo Creek Disaster. Thanks for listening. If you like the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on your Apple Choice. It only takes a second. And you can reach out to the show at historiesandisaster at gmail.com with questions, comments, or suggestions. As well as following the show on social media. Facebook, Instagram, a few others, TikTok, YouTube, whatever. And share the episode. Your friends will love it. And while you're out there, take your adopted penguin for a swim. Let them enjoy that nice cool river water. Chase that dream. Live for today, because tomorrow is never guaranteed. Thanks and goodbye.