Buffalo Creek Disaster Summary

The big shots want to call it an act of God.” As the coal company shirked their responsibilities, tempers flared throughout West Virginia. West Virginia Congressman Ken Hechler was furious that the organizations responsible for the flood were not taking responsibility for their actions. Coal companies had been exploiting impoverished mining communities for years and it was time to take a stand. Hechler argued that it was unacceptable that the Bureau of Mines and other federal agencies had not expressed concern for the safety and well being of the miners and their families. Hechler expressed the well-known sentiment that the miners and other residents of coal mining communities are “prisoners of the coal industry.”
The community of Buffalo Creek was torn apart in the aftermath of the flood. Many people like Robert Albright lost the majority of their family. Robert Albright was a seasoned miner who lived in the Lorado community with his wife and two sons. Robert had left his shift after a sudden power shut down and drove home. He was shocked to see the rushing black water demolishing homes and raced home to check on his family. Robert arrived at his home to find the house completely swept off of its foundation and his family was gone. Unfortunately, the

Albrights had not received a warning regarding the flood and were swept away by the water. The youngest son, Kerry Lee, had been found face down in the mud and rushed to the nearest house. Frantic hands desperately cleared the gob from his throat and Kerry Lee began to wail as soon as Robert picked him up. Robert rushed Kerry Lee to the nearest hospital as quickly as he could. It proved to be extremely difficult to get to the hospital because fallen trees and a rockslide blocked the road. When the distressed duo reached the hospital, Kerry Lee was taken to emergency where Albright discovered that the baby would make a full recovery and became known as the “Miracle Baby.” Although Kerry Lee and Robert survived, Steve and Sylvia Albright did not survive the flood. Robert mourned his family but Kerry Lee’s survival gave him a reason to live. Albright’s story is a tragic reminder of the devastation that the flood left in its wake. The survivors of the Buffalo Creek flood were furious about the company’s negligence that caused the flood. Pittston had not installed a warning system in the event that the dam did break Pearl Woodrum’s letter was brought up in the aftermath of the flood when officials noted that the letter had not been properly investigated and was instead sent from one state department to another.

The survivors of Buffalo Creek wanted to take legal action against the Pittston Mining Company to ensure that the company would be held responsible for their negligence. The legal system regarding the coal company was difficult to navigate. If the survivors sued the Buffalo Creek Company, their lawsuit would only be brought up in West Virginia courts. But if the miners sued the Pittston Company, their case would occur in the federal court system because the company was located in New York. Members of the same state cannot sue one another in federal court. The Pittston Company wanted to be tried in the state courts where coal’s longstanding political influence would buy their virtual immunity. The company would lack that advantage in the federal court system. The survivors pushed forward with the lawsuit even though the odds were stacked against them. When word of a pending lawsuit reached Pittston, the company opened a claims office in Buffalo Creek in hopes that they could pay off the survivors and avoid a lawsuit. Pittston tried to appease the survivors with small sums of money to help replace what they had lost in the flood. The company tried to deter the survivors from hiring a lawyer when they publicly stated, “Pittston would not pay any more to survivors represented by a lawyer than it would to those who came in the claims office on their own.” Gerald Stern was the lawyer leading the case against Buffalo Creek and compiled a claim for damages and stated the amount of real property and personal property lost was worth $11 million. In addition to filing a claim regarding the amount of property lost, Stern also filed a claim regarding mental suffering that totaled close to $20 million. Stern filed the formal complaint towards Pittston and waited for the lawsuit to formally begin. The West Virginia Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry into the Buffalo Creek Flood issued a report and found that the Pittston Company “has shown a flagrant disregard for the safety of the residents of Buffalo Creek and other persons who live near coal refuse impoundments.” Soon after releasing the conclusion that Pittston exhibited “flagrant disregard” for the well being of the residents of Buffalo Creek, the commission arranged a meeting of a grand jury to determine whether anyone should be criminally charged for the Buffalo Creek disaster. The grand jury came to the conclusion that no one, not even the coal company, was responsible for the 125 deaths on Buffalo Creek. Pittston wanted to formally dismiss the case against them because they did not own the dam at Buffalo Creek. Pittston stated that they were only a stockholder and did not have any effect on the mining operations in Buffalo Creek. Stern was able to prove that Pittston and Buffalo Mining Company were the same entity because the heading on Buffalo Mining’s stationary said “A Division of the Pittston Company.” This simple phrase on the stationary showed that Pittston and Buffalo Mining Company were not separate companies. Gerald Stern questioned Irvin Spotte who was the president of the Pittston Coal Company. Spotte stated on behalf of the Pittston Coal Company that “we do not feel that we did anything wrong. It was a natural occurrence. It was something beyond our control.” Spottes’ statement enraged Stern because Spotte did not want to take responsibility for the actions of the coal company. Stern asked Spotte about the other dams that Pittston owned. The dam at Buffalo Creek had not been built like the other dams that Pittston oversaw. The Buffalo Creek dam had been built carelessly and without regard for human safety. The dam at Buffalo Creek did not comply with federal safety standards even though other Pittston dams obeyed federal safety standards. On June 26 1974, Pittston settled to give the victims of the Buffalo Creek Flood $13.5 million for mental damages and loss of property.
If a company planned on constructing a dam that is over fifteen feet in height and obstructs a waterway, they must submit detailed plans to the state’s Public Works Commission. After the flood, vice president of Buffalo Mining Company stated that no plans for the Buffalo Creek dam had been submitted nor were any engineering plans made and no outside officials such as hydrologists or soil experts were consulted in the construction of the dam. Dam No. 3 on Middle Fork Creek was constructed simply by piling tons of coal waste on top of each other, a cheap approach that virtually guaranteed environmental devastation in the event of a breech.
The tragedy of the Buffalo Creek Disaster had a devastating and lasting impact on the survivors.

The sense of community and safety was undermined by the flood and affected the way the survivors viewed their surrounding environment. The survivors were afraid of a similar event happening again and tearing down their recovering community. This event reflects the savage and untamed characteristic of nature in our lives. Although the Pittston Company tried to keep massive amounts of water from flooding the valleys below, they could not prevent the rain from falling that eventually caused the flood. As humans, we try as hard as we can to tame nature and bend it to our will but nature will always win in the

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