The Day It Rained Forever

When you read historical fiction about a natural disaster, your reading mood takes on a dark and pessimistic cast. You already know basically what will happen in the end. And it will not be good. At the beginning of the story, the characters are not aware of the calamity awaiting them. And the reader’s thoughts are caught in a repeating loop of sad thoughts; “if only they knew, they could save themselves!”

The Day It Rained Forever,
by Virginia  Gross
(From: Amazon)

These were my thoughts as I began to read Virginia T. Gross's The Day It Rained Forever. The book tells the story of the fictional Berwind family and their survival during the Johnstown Flood of 1889. The story goes nearly as expected, considering that the flood ranks among the worst natural disasters in U.S. history. Although 2,209 people died in the flood, most of the Berwind family survives, despite a near death experience for Mrs. Berwind. A Berwind uncle, Herbert, is not so fortunate as his house is located on a street bordering the Conemaugh River in Johnstown--directly in the path of the wave.

Gross brightens the story through a subplot based on a series of coincidences. As the story begins, a Berwind infant has recently died from illness, leaving a despondent family behind. Mrs. Berwind is unfortunately in Johnstown when the South Fork dam breaks upstream and a massive wave subsequently dooms the small city. But instead of drowning, she rides the high water before catching hold of a tree. Coincidentally, an infant riding alone in a wooden bathtub floats close enough for her to grasp it. In another coincidence, the tree she is holding onto as the water rushes by is adjacent to a steep hillside. A cobbler named Ronaldo Amici happens to be standing on the hillside when he notices her. He rushes to save her and the baby using a rope and broom handle. The infant is taken to the Berwind home during the flood's aftermath. The parents of the baby are never identified and a lawyer advises the Berwinds that they are free to keep the baby, who they have now named Hope. Thus, the flood brings an unexpected blessing to the Berwind family, a new infant that eases the pain caused by the first infant's death.

Houses in the Johnstown Flood. (From: Wikimedia)

The book begins with a conversation between Mr. Berwind and his neighbor, Mr. Koehler, on May 30, 1889 as the rain begins. Koehler warns the Berwinds of the weakness of the dam on the Conemaugh River. He believes that due to the poor repairs and maintenance of the dam by the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, an eventual collapse of the dam is inevitable. Mr. Koehler leaves the older Berwind children, Christina and Frederick, with worries about the dam. Mr. Berwind dismisses Mr. Koehler's warnings as the stories of an overactive imagination.

South Fork Fishing & Hunting Club buildings.
(From: Johnstown Area Heritage Association)

Mr. Berwind's dismissal of Mr. Koehler's concerns is in fact representative of a common opinion among residents of the Conemaugh River valley at the time. As the water level in Conemaugh Lake continued to rise on May 31, 1889, John Parke, the South Fork Club's engineer rushed by horse to the town of South Fork. He telegraphed to the authorities in Johnstown his belief that a dam collapse was imminent. But Johnstown authorities did not respond. They believed that this storm was not unlike past storms, during which many doomsayers had warned of a dam collapse--but none had occurred. Mr. Koehler argues that the wealthy members of the South Fork Club had cut corners in maintaining the dam. His concerns are verified by the historical record. Originally built in the 1840s by the state of Pennsylvania, the dam's center collapsed during an 1862 storm. When the Club bought the dam in 1862, the damage was repaired not with the puddled clay, slate, and rocks that were originally used to the build it; they filled in the gap with simple soil. The dam was lowered in order to build a carriage road across it, providing access to the upscale Club buildings across the lake. In the original dam design, culverts or pipes had been built inside the dam connecting the lake to the river below the dam; these would allow the lake to be drained in case of an emergency such as happened in the storm of May 31. However, the Club attached screens to these pipes in order to keep the valuable fish in the lake--remember, its full name was South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. Members of the Club were wealthy industrialists from Pittsburgh who treasured their fish! On May 31, so much debris had built up against the screens that no water could pass through. When tremendous water pressure built up against a weakened dam with none of the emergency features of the original design, the result was a dam collapse and immediate danger to everyone in who lived in the river valley below.

The storm that began late in the day on May 30 continued through the night and into the next day. By early afternoon, the waters of the Conemaugh River in Johnstown had already risen about 10 feet. In the story, the Berwind farm is located safely at a high elevation above the river valley. Most of the Berwind family is at home before the collapse, but Mrs. Berwind is in Johnstown helping to prepare for the wedding of her brother-in-law Herbert Berwind. Herbert's home is located adjacent to the river. Even before the collapse, Mrs. Berwind and Herbert's fiancé, Lenora, are forced by rising water to the top floor of the house.

Terrain Map of the Johnstown, PA Flood, May 31, 1889
(From: John MacKenzie, University of Delaware) Click on link for a larger version.

Conemaugh Lake broke through the dam at about 3:10 PM on May 31. Twenty million tons of water formed a wave as high as 70 feet and began racing down the Conemaugh River valley at a rate of 40 miles per hour. It took almost an hour for the wave to reach Johnstown fourteen miles away. Along the way, it picked up and carried buildings, trees, people, and almost all objects in its path. At a stone railroad bridge in Johnstown, debris, including kerosene and oil, piled up there and caught fire. The fire killed many people trapped there. Frederick Berwind in the story helps in the rescue and clean up effort for two days after the storm. He returns home shocked and in grief.

Debris at the stone bridge in Johnstown. (From: Wikimedia)

Is The Day It Rained Forever a believable story? What was the likelihood of the chain of coincidental events involving Mrs. Berwind and the infant described above? 2,209 people died in the Johnstown flood. The population of Johnstown alone (not including the other small valley towns affected) was 30,000 in 1889. There must have been a number of people who were able to survive the flood as Mrs. Berwind does. 98 children were orphaned by the flood. Thus, it seems possible that the parents of the weeks-old infant rescued by Mrs. Berwind is an orphan. The story is entirely believable.

Much of The Day It Rained Forever takes place well away from the flood at the Berwind farm on a mountain high above the valley. In this way, the author is able to avoid extended, graphic descriptions of the flood, its aftermath, and its effect on Conemaugh valley residents. Mrs. Berwind was, of course, swept up in the flood. After the flood, Frederick Berwind briefly relates the tragic scenes he observed at the stone bridge in Johnstown. Gross includes enough detail of the flood for children to grasp the graveness of the tragedy, but mixes a happier subplot of hope that arises out of the disaster. In fact, that is just what the Berwinds name their new infant, Hope. I recommend this book as a way for children to explore the human impact of the Johnstown flood, yet in a way that is not devoid of hope. It turns out that my dark mood upon beginning the book was not entirely warranted. There is hope even in the midst of the worst tragedies.

Resources on the Johnstown Flood

"Johnstown Dam Disaster." YouTube. YouTube. Web. 06 Mar. 2016.
Johnstown Flood. (2016, February 6). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:16, March 6, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Johnstown_Flood&oldid=703582453

Kolb, Charles C. "Johnstown Flood." Dictionary of American History. Ed. Stanley I. Kutler. 3rd ed. Vol. 4. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. 483-484. U.S. History in Context. Web. 6 Mar. 2016.