It is 1889 and the citizens of Johnstown, Pennsylvania and other towns in the Conemaugh River valley are decimated when the dam upstream at the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club explodes. Accounts of survivors show physical and emotional terror of the flood experience as one in every ten residents die by drowning, crushing, impalement or burning. The official death toll is 2209. Estimates in newspapers range as high as 15,000. Some blame the steel millionaires and wealthy bankers who own the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club.—Michael Bussler