Against The Odds

It’s May, 30th 1889, and the South Fork Dam in Western Pennsylvania is in danger. After nearly a month of hard rain, eight inches have fallen in one day, filling the lake behind the dam to capacity. And the dam’s owners, the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club, have cut corners in repairing and maintaining it. It’s threatening to break, which would unleash 20 million tons of water on the people in the valley below, including everyone living in the steel city of Johnstown...

Engineer John Parke and a team of workers furiously shovel dirt, trying to shore up the South Fork Dam as it threatens to overflow, amid torrential rains. Parke knows these efforts are their only chance of preventing a terrible flood. He decides he has to warn the towns in the river valley of the imminent danger — but it’s a warning they’ve heard too many times in the past to take seriously.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19...

Despite the efforts of engineer John Parke, the South Fork Dam does break. The ensuing flash flood sweeps up a vast, moving wall of debris: mud, rocks, trees, fragments of bridges and smashed-up houses. Residents in Johnstown, including Reverend H.L. Chapman and his family, have mere seconds to flee to higher ground as the floodwaters and debris crash into their homes. The lucky ones find themselves clinging to rooftops amid the raging waters, fighting to survive...

After the flood leaves many Johnstown residents trapped by debris and fighting for their lives, several oil slicks from leaking industrial equipment catch fire, igniting a deadly inferno. Sixteen-year-old Victor Heiser must rescue a young woman whose leg is pinned by rubble as the fire grows closer by the second. And as the floodwaters finally recede, and residents return to where their homes once stood, they reckon with all that they’ve lost and will have to rebuild...

National Park Ranger Doug Bosley’s existence hinges on a few dangerous seconds in the life of his great-great grandfather, William Pickerill. On May 31, 1889, Pickerill worked as a telegraph operator down the valley from Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Before it was washed away by the flood, his telegraph office relayed warnings about the impending collapse of the South Fork Dam...