But today's pleadings in the United States District Court here raised the damage claims from $52‐million to $64‐million, added 200 plaintiffs and sought to open a large new area of liability on the part of the Pittston Company. 60661-3691 On February 26, 1972, a sludge dam on the Middle Fork of Buffalo Creek in Logan County gave way, unloosening a torrent of thick, murky water that claimed at least 118 lives, left seven persons missing, destroyed hundreds of homes, and left thousands homeless. Prof. Joan Steinman, Video Deposition One Saturday morning in February 1972, an impoundment dam owned by the Pittston Coal Company burst, sending a 130 million gallon, 25 foot tidal wave of water, sludge, and debris crashing into southern West Virginia's Buffalo Creek hollow. Pittston executives are to answer pretrial questions put to them by Gerald R. Stern, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, in a series of closed interrogations next month. Discuss the concept of corporate veil. Now Available! It may now also be one of the most complex. Prince says that his wife, with a broken leg, could never gain the rooftop of the sinking, disintegrating house—telephone poles by then were coming through the second‐floor windows “like torpedoes”—and Mrs. The Buffalo Creek Disaster • Buffalo Creek Hollow was a small valley that consisted of about seventeen coal communities which were adjacent to Buffalo Creek • When operation of the mine commenced in 1945 the practice dumping of slurry, or coal mining waste into the hollow also began. According to statements by the plaintiffs, the “survivor syndrome” has left thousands of persons from Bufalo Creek in “fear, terror, shock and humiliation,” sexually impotent, chronically sleepless, alcoholic and morbidly afraid of rainfall. The Buffalo Creek Disaster1 is a story of an unfortunate accident that occurred on February 26, 1972 in Buffalo Creek Valley, WV, as a result of the collapse of a coal company’s waste refuse pile. On February 22 1972 the Pittston Coal Company's Slurry Dam Number Three had been declared 'satisfactory' after inspection, despite having been built on accumulated coal waste created by large-scale strip mining rather than bedrock. The survivors’ statements were collected by lawyers and a team of top sociologists and psychiatrists employed by Arnold & Porter, the Washington law firm representing the flood victims. The Buffalo Creek flood was one of the worst disasters in West Virginia’s long and tragic history of calamities, both natural and man-made. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. The Buffalo Creek Disaster, February 26, 1972. The case is not expected to go to trial before District Judge Kenneth A. There were about 5,000 people living in the communities along Buffalo Creek, places like Kistler, Robinette, Stowe, Lorado and Pardee. By the time the Feb. 26, 1972, flood was over, 125 people had been killed. There were bodies in the water, “black and red” with coal sludge and blood, his report says. The first‐person narratives described the horrors of the sudden flood, its immediate aftermath and the 14 months of “concentration camp life” by uprooted Buffalo Creek residents in “temporary” trailer‐camp housing. Water!” as they prepared to have breakfast coffee. Define. The town’s entire water system was ripped out. Disaster at Buffalo Creek. The two telephone‐book‐sized volumes of survivors’ statements contain hundreds of narratives of the disaster in the words of witnesses. The Adobe Acrobat file available below contains copies of original documents used in the Buffalo Creek civil case. If you do not have the plugin, you can get it from Adobe's web page, located at: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html. It comprised the most horrifying chronicle of death and survival yet to emerge from the muchreported Buffalo Creek disaster. Death at Buffalo Creek: The 1972 West Virginia Flood Disaster, by Tom Nugent (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1973). In the final pages of the report on the Buffalo Creek disaster, investigators concluded that Dam No. Chicago-Kent Home Page, © 2001-12 In New York City, a spokesman for Pittston, the largest independent coal producer not affiliated with a major petroleum corporation, said the company would have no comment on the new filings in the damage suit. When the house crashed into a school building and stopped three miles down the valley, she was naked and black with coal dust from her struggles. In late February 1972 a coal waste impoundment dam along the Buffalo Creek in Logan County, West Virginia collapsed. “Pittston Coal neglected to warn The Mining Bureau, the National Guard, the State Police, and even the Logan County Sheriff’s office. The following documents are included in the file: Click here for the Adobe Acrobat file of Buffalo Creek documents. Learn Buffalo Creek Disaster Stern with free interactive flashcards. Property owners have not been allowed to rebuild because there is lack of sewerage and water systems and because of stalled state plans to construct a broad highway through the valley. The Buffalo Creek Disaster is more than a story about heroes: As the title suggests, the book is a matter-of-fact yet dramatic tale authored by the leading plaintiffs’ lawyer in the case. Numerous towns sprang up over years in this coal rich creek since the boom of the mining industry. Don't always trust a US Federal Mine Inspector - that was the painful lesson learned by unsuspecting residents of Buffalo Creek Hollow in West Virginia. Tel 312.906.5000; Fax His statement describes how they were swept from their feet almost immediately in waistdeep water and how they clung to a passing house as the water rose, carrying them along at 35 miles an hour, “with a sound like continuous thunder.”. Missing Dorinda L. Adkins, 3 months, Lorado, WV Samuel Carter, 20 months, Lundale, WV Roscoe Clay, 74, Lorado, WV James N. Davis, 2, Stowe, WV Nancy Hopson, 1, Crites, WV The Buffalo Creek Disaster: The Story of the Survivors' Unprecedented Lawsuit, by Gerald M Stern (New York: Random House, 1976). CHARLESTON, W. Va., Apri 17—More than 600 survivors and victims of West Virginia's worst flood disaster—the inundation last year of the narrow, densely populated valley of Buffalo Creek by a 50‐foot wall of sludge and water that broke through a defective coal company dam—sued the Pittston Company today for $64‐million. Assume that, in order to clear the way for approval of a proposed oil refinery in Maine by removing the potential threat to Pittston's financial condition posed by the Buffalo Creek disaster, before being sued by any survivors of that disaster, Pittston and Buffalo Mining Company sue the survivors in federal court asking for a declaratory judgment, contending that they (Pittston and BMC)are not liable … http://www.real.com/realplayer. The disaster at Buffalo Creek remains one of America’s most costly and deadly preventable mining related catastrophes. Civil Procedure email: support@earlyone.com phone: +374 10 20 20 27 The resulting flood killed 125 people and caused over $50 million in damage. One of worst floods in US occurred here 26 February 1972, when Buffalo Mining Co. impoundment dam for mine waste broke, releasing over 130 million gallons of black waste water: killed 125; property losses over $50 million; and thousands left homeless. The company recently told its stockholders that it had “settled 95 per cent” of the outstanding Buffalo Creek disaster claims. If you do not have the plugin, you can get it from Real Player's web page, located at: Buffalo Creek Disaster. September 2, 1972 West Virginia Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry into the Buffalo Creek Flood released its report.The Commission concluded after eight public hearings, 91 witnesses, and 2,000 pages of transcript that Pittston “has shown flagrant disregard for the safety of residents of Buffalo Creek and other persons who live near coal-refuse impoundments.” Erikson KT. Hall until late next fall. The dam there broke at 8 A.M., Feb. 26, 1972, a Saturday when many residents were sleeping late. If you have any problems or questions, please email the web page administrator at dginsberg@kentlaw.edu. Prior to the inception of the ‘corporate entity’, a partner in a partnership was held personally liable for all the debts of the company. The Buffalo Creek disaster (dam break), which occurred in 1972, is one of the best studied disasters: a 59% PTSD lifetime rate was found among the victims, with 25% still meeting PTSD criteria some 14 years after the event [17]. Much of the once‐thicklysettled, 18‐mile long valley is still as scoured and barren as it was after the 150 million gallons of gritty, coal‐laden water swept down from the collapsed dam at its head, in the mountainous coal fields of Logan County. 565 W. Adams St., Chicago, Illinois Choose from 44 different sets of Buffalo Creek Disaster Stern flashcards on Quizlet. Contact our Support team. This disaster was a result of negligence by both the Buffalo Mining Company and the Pittston Company - the former owned by the latter. It was one of the deadliest floods in U.S. history. The Buffalo Creek flood was a disaster that occurred on February 26, 1972, when the Pittston Coal Company's coal slurry impoundment dam #3, located on a hillside in Logan County, West Virginia, burst, four days after having been declared "satisfactory" by a federal mine inspector. Examples of Business Law and Ethics in the Buffalo Creek Disaster 1407 Words | 6 Pages. Another 1,100 were injured, and about 4,000 were left homeless. The Deposition of Claudio Ferguson video -- Click here to view the video. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology, Memorandum of law in support of the defendant's motion (pages 26 - 38), Plaintiff's notice of taking depositions (pages 39 - 49), Defendant's response to plaintiff's request to produce documents (pages 50 - 60), Defendant's interrogatories (pages 61 - 67), Plaintiff's first answers to defendant's interrogatories (pages 68 - 88), Plaintiff's notice of motion to order production of documents (pages 88 - 101), Defendant's memorandum in opposition to plaintiff's motion to order production of documents (pages 102 - 106). The testimony of hundreds of the plaintiffs was included in the more than 800 pages of testimony filed here today. 312.906.5280, © 2001-12 The survivors of the Buffalo Creek disaster suffered both individual and collective trauma, the latter being reflected in their loss of communality. In an instant their house floated off its foundations, spinning and colliding with other houses, and water borne railroad ties crashed through the windows. The litigation Stern wrote about arose from a 1972 disaster when a dam collapsed on the Buffalo Creek in West Virginia causing 125 deaths, 1000 destroyed homes and hundreds of injuries. Classes with Online Materials On the day of the disaster, citizens of Buffalo Creek Valley had little or no warning from Pittston or the Buffalo Mining Co. f the impending danger until the wall of water had descended upon them. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. On February 26, 1972, a huge earthen dam constructed by a coal company without any engineering input collapsed. Logan County, West Virginia is home to a small area called the Buffalo Creek Hallow. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. CHARLESTON, W. Va., Apri 17—More than 600 survivors and victims of West Virginia's worst flood disaster—the inundation last year of the narrow, densely populated valley … In a few short minutes, the dam virtually disappeared, and a torrent of water began a 17-mile trip down the narrow Buffalo Creek valley in rural Logan County, West Virginia. The Adobe Acrobat file available below contains copies of original documents used in the Buffalo Creek civil case. The Buffalo Mining Co. started to offer immediate but rather small cash payments as compensation primarily for loss of property but the residents of Buffalo Creek wanted to obtain recovery for communal and psychological losses suffered by them in the disaster. Loss of communality at Buffalo Creek. The village of Buffalo Creek on the banks of Buffalo Creek was devastated by the flood. Using straightforward language, Stern provides the reader with a window through which the world of … Many have settled for out‐ofcourt cash payments by Pittston, which now total an estimated $11.4‐million, but the releases from liability they have signed may not bar them from seeking further recovery for permanent mental anguish —the new area of claims alleged in today's amendments to the suit. Human relationships in this community had been derived from traditional bonds of kinship and neighborliness. In addition to the 125 lives lost when the dam broke, 507 houses were swept away, 1,000 automobiles and trucks were wrecked, and 4,000 persons were left homeless or forbidden by the local authorities to reestablish their families in damaged homes. Another narrative tells how a 70‐year‐old retired miner and his wife heard someone yelling, “Water! See the article in its original context from. The electricity and telephone lines went down. New Award – Winning Release! A citizens’ commission report called Buffalo Creek “a man-made disaster.” A governor’s task force concluded, “It was, in the truest sense, the most destructive flood in West Virginia history.” How to successfully survive a brain injury! The suit was first filed last September. A sample from the award-winning 1975 Appalshop film "The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man." The Buffalo Creek Disaster is the story of how Gerald Stern and his colleagues solved problems for clients who had been harmed when a coal company’s refuse pile failed, resulting in massive flooding in Buffalo Creek Valley in West Virginia. The fire station, which straddled the creek, was completely destroyed. Dennis Prince, the 52‐year‐old coal mine electrician who is the chief plaintiff in Prince v. Pittston, fled from his trailer with his family when they saw “a housetop” going down Buffalo Creek. Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology Start studying Buffalo Creek Disaster. Spring 2012 Note: You must have the Acrobat Reader plugin (free) installed on your computer in order to view the documents. You only need the free plugin, not the entire program. email: sales@earlyone.com phone: +374 11 20 20 27. By Ben A. Franklin; Special to The New York Times. Prince “just smiled and waved good‐by.” Her husband saw her floating in the black water as he passed the downstream community where his daughter had lived. The refrigerator fell over, pinning the woman to the floor in rising water. Mr. Note: You must have Real Play plugin (free) installed on your computer in order to view this video document. 125 people were killed instantly, more than 1,000 were injured, and over 4,000 were suddenly … The suit against the owners of what the state has called an illegally constructed dam, built of porous coal mine waste material, is one of the largest court actions of its kind—both in terms of damages claimed and in the number of plaintiffs. When Stern was deciding to file the Unthinkable: Tips for Surviving a Child’s Traumatic Brain Injury written in an easy-to-read bulleted format, will help parents, caregivers, friends and health care professionals navigate through the new terrain of an injured child and guide them step-by step through the recovery process! 3 on the Middle Fork was born out of the age-old practice in the coalfields of disposing of waste material and that it was constructed without utilizing technology developed for earthen dams and without consulting professionals qualified to design and build such a structure. The area was that of life‐long traumatic and psychic damage to the plaintiffs, described as “survivor syndrome.”. The raging waters uprooted trees and utility poles and ruined cars. 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