Email Lawyer PREMIUM Jeremy Rosenthal Lawyer Serving Buffalo Creek, CO (303) 642-8888 Free Consultation Colorado Attorney with 19 years of experience SuperLawyers, The National Trial Lawyers Top 100 and Million Dollar Advocate's Forum Reptile of the Brain Lawyers and Colorado State Bar Free Consultation View Website View Profile Email Lawyer
Attorney profiles include the biography, education and training, and client recommendations of an attorney to help you decide who to hire. Use the contact form on the profiles to connect with a Buffalo Creek, Colorado attorney for legal advice.
Tomazin Law Group LLP. Car Accident Lawyers Serving Buffalo Creek, CO (Greenwood Village, CO) Over 30 years experience helping injured people in Colorado protect their rights. Call today for a free consultation. 5 out of 5 stars. 6. reviews. Super Lawyers ®. 2.
Sep 05, 1976 · Gerald Stern, who was the Buffalo Creek survivors' lawyer, quotes depositions and interviews that make it clear the tragedy could have been averted if the New York‐based Pittston Company, whose...
4,000+ left homeless. The Buffalo Creek flood was a disaster that occurred on February 26, 1972, when a coal slurry impoundment dam managed by the Pittston Coal Company and located on a hillside in Logan County, West Virginia, burst, four days after having been declared "satisfactory" by a federal mine inspector.
Dennis Prince and some 625 survivors of the flood sued the Pittston Coal Company, seeking $64 million in damages (equivalent to $331.8 million today). They settled in June 1974 for $13.5 million ($70 million today), or approximately $13,000 for each individual after legal costs ($67,000 today). A second suit was filed by 348 child survivors, who sought $225 million ($1.17 billion today); they settled for $4.8 million in June 1974 ($24.9 million today).
Kerry Albright became known as the "miracle baby" of the disaster. Running from the leading edge of the water, his mother threw him just above the flood level moments before she drowned. He survived with few ill effects, and was reared by his father. His survival gave hope and inspiration to other survivors.
One, The Buffalo Creek Disaster, about the case itself, was by Jerry Stern. Although a book for laymen, it is still used in many law school civil procedure courses. The other, a runner-up for a National Book Award in 1975, is Everything In Its Path, by Kai Erikson describing the story of the disaster from a sociologist's point of view.
On February 26, 1972, a huge earthen dam constructed by a coal company without any engineering input collapsed. 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.
On the morning of February 26, 1972, the failure of three coal slurry dams let loose a tidal wave of destruction upon the Buffalo Creek hollow in Logan county, West Virginia.
The historic Buffalo Creek flood tore through a region often exploited by industry—and stereotyped by outsiders. On the morning of February 26, 1972, the failure of three coal slurry dams let loose a tidal wave of destruction upon the Buffalo Creek hollow in Logan county, West Virginia. With little warning to residents, ...
By the day’s end, hundreds of homes and vehicles were destroyed, thousands were left homeless, and 125 men, women, and children were dead. The flood, known as the Buffalo Creek disaster, is considered one of the worst disasters in both American and Mountain State history.
Tom Breiding, a Pittsburgh singer-songwriter with West Virginia roots, saw this firsthand when he traveled to Buffalo Creek for research while composing his 2008 album The Unbroken Circle: Songs of the West Virginia Coalfields.
Stephen Young, a Marshall University professor and criminologist, recently wrote an article focused on the 2014 Elk River chemical spill, which left 300,000 West Virginians without clean water. Young ranks the spill as but one more state crime in a long list of state crimes, a list on which Buffalo Creek is also included.
Two commissions investigated the disaster. The first, the Governor's Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry, appointed by Governor Arch A. Moore Jr., was made up entirely of either members sympathetic to the coal industry or government officials whose departments might have been complicit in the genesis of the flood. One of the investigators was Jack Spadaro, a man who devoted his time to regulating dam construction for safety. After then-president of the United Mi…
There were three dams on the site. Dam #3 failed first. Located about 260 feet (79 m) above the town of Saunders, it was built on top of coal slurry sediment that had collected behind dams #1 and #2, instead of on solid bedrock. It was constructed of coarse mining refuse dumped into the Middle Fork of Buffalo Creek.
Dam #3's failure was followed by heavy rains. The water from dam #3 then overwhelmed dams …
Dennis Prince and some 625 survivors of the flood sued the Pittston Coal Company, seeking $64 million in damages (equivalent to $351.7 million today). They settled in June 1974 for $13.5 million ($74.2 million today), or approximately $13,000 for each individual after legal costs ($71,000 today). A second suit was filed by 348 child survivors, who sought $225 million ($1.24 billion today); they settled for $4.8 million in June 1974 ($26.4 million today).
Prior to the disaster, Buffalo Creek was a popular fishing spot. Due to the effects of the flood, Buffalo Creek would not support aquatic life "long after the Feb. 26, 1972 disaster", according to a 2022 account by The Associated Press. After extensive cleanup and remediation efforts, trout restocking began in 2006. By February 2022, 50 years after the accident, trout were once again plentiful in Buffalo Creek.
• Aberfan disaster
• Coal slurry
• Martin County coal slurry spill
• Sludge (film)
• The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man, a 1974 documentary film about the disaster
• Kai T. Erikson (1976). Everything in Its Path. Simon and Schuster. pp. 284. ISBN 0-671-24067-6.
• Gerald M. Stern, The Buffalo Creek Disaster ISBN 0-394-72343-0
• "Voices of Buffalo Creek". Charleston Gazette. Archived from the original on April 5, 2005. Retrieved April 27, 2005.
• "Buffalo Creek Flood". Marshall University Special Collections. Archived from the original on March 2, 2013. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
• "Buffalo Creek Flood". West Virginia Division of Culture and History. Retrieved October 28, 2007.