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In the second section of our reading of The Johnstown Flood, McCullough breaks his flow of describing the socio-economic and cultural factors that shaped Johnstown and South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club and the deficiencies that led to the dam’s collapse. Although I thought these were the only towns associated with the great flood, the second section describes every community in between that disintegrated as well. Before reading about the other communities, I pictured water gradually pouring into Johnstown. I hadn’t conceptualized a wave until I read narrative after narrative of those who survived the wave and those who fell victim to the wave.
The tidal wave that collected “several hundred freight cars, a dozen or more locomotives, passenger cars, nearly a hundred more houses, and quite a few human corpses” reminded me of the religious undertones of Father Peter Pernin and the religious concentration of “Faith and doubt: the imaginative dimensions of the Great Chicago Fire” in discourse about the Chicago Fire. McCullough does not declare those who died to be sinners, nor does he directly assign blame for the cause of the dam breaking, but this lack of blame may be interpreted as a flood sent by God. “But he had gone only a short way when he saw the wave, almost on top of him, demolishing everything, and he knew he could never make it” (161). This is similar to CT’s post about God’s choice to demolish Chicago.
Most religions have a flood narrative, whether as a cosmology or an act of purification, and this wave’s chaos could have described a purification act: “everyone heard shouting and screaming, the earsplitting crash of buildings going down, glass shattering, and the sides of houses ripping apart. Some people would later swear they heard factory whistles screeching frantically and church bells ringing” (145). I am only further convinced after reading the descriptive imagery of the St. John’ Catholic Church spires catch fire and fall off (169).
I am interested to continue reading and see how McCullough ties everything together, and if he ever directly blames one group of people for this disaster. I also wonder if he will describe who is financially responsible, and who will pay for the farmland and houses that were swept away.