Appalachian History Series
On the morning of February 26, 1972, the coal refuse dam system above the Middle Fork of Buffalo Creek failed near Saunders in Logan County, West Virginia. Within hours a black wall of water and slurry swept down the hollow, tearing through more than a dozen coal camp communities and leaving a scar that Appalachia still carries. Investigators would later conclude that the tragedy was preventable, rooted in design and oversight failures rather than an unavoidable natural event.
What failed on the Middle Fork
Three refuse impoundments had been built in series on the Middle Fork. Dam No. 3, perched above older deposits, collapsed first, overtopped and destroyed Dam No. 2, then Dam No. 1. A U.S. Geological Survey study found that the collapse of Dam No. 3 contributed almost all of the peak flood discharge, confirming that the chain failure of man-made embankments, not a natural flood, drove the disaster.
A Bureau of Mines and NIOSH engineering investigation documented foundation instability, uncontrolled seepage, and the use of coarse refuse dumped into the stream channel, conditions that promoted internal erosion and collapse. The report tallied the human toll as 118 deaths and 7 missing, which matches the commonly cited total of 125 lives lost.
Warnings and the weather
NOAA’s disaster survey team reviewed rainfall, forecasts, and warnings and found no evidence that a major natural flood event caused the catastrophe. The team criticized the performance of the region’s warning system and recommended clearer responsibility for flash flood alerts in coalfield hollows.
8 a.m. in the valley
Just after 8 a.m., the upper dam gave way and a surge roared down the narrow valley. USGS hydrologic mapping shows the flood profile from Saunders to Man, including stages that explain why homes, bridges, tracks, and entire blocks vanished in minutes. Those plates help pinpoint the sequence by which Saunders, Pardee, Lorado, Craneco, Lundale, and other communities were struck in rapid succession.
Voices from the hollow
The historical record is unusually rich in survivor testimony. Appalshop’s documentary The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man captured residents describing the wave and the aftermath in their own words, and its transcript remains a primary source for on-the-ground experience in the days after the flood. Marshall University’s Special Collections holds 552 depositions from the survivors who became plaintiffs in Prince et al. v. Pittston, a legal archive that preserves names, losses, and narratives household by household.
The official state inquiry
Governor Arch A. Moore Jr. appointed an Ad Hoc Commission to investigate causes and accountability. After public hearings with dozens of witnesses and thousands of pages of testimony, the Commission’s report concluded that Pittston and its subsidiary had shown “flagrant disregard for the safety of residents of Buffalo Creek.” The full report remains the key primary record of the state’s findings.
In Washington, and in court
The disaster placed coal refuse impoundments and non-federal dams squarely on the national agenda. Senate hearings in late May 1972 took testimony from federal engineers, company officials, National Guard officers, and survivors. That congressional attention helped propel the National Dam Inspection Act, Public Law 92-367, signed on August 8, 1972, which directed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to create a national inventory and inspection program for non-federal dams. Early GAO reviews cited Buffalo Creek among the events that spurred the law and later criticized the slow pace of implementation.
Settlements and accountability
Civil litigation by survivors led to a $13.5 million settlement with the Pittston Company in June–July 1974, as summarized by West Virginia University College of Law’s timeline of the case. In a separate action, the State of West Virginia’s $100 million suit against Pittston was settled for $1 million in January 1977, a decision accepted by Governor Moore just days before he left office, as reported by West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
How Buffalo Creek changed policy
Beyond immediate relief and rebuilding, Buffalo Creek shifted the nation’s approach to dam safety. GAO’s 1977 reports and later summaries trace how the 1972 Act, followed by presidential directives and interagency coordination, grew into a federal-state framework that still anchors dam safety programs today. Professional societies and state archives continue to use Buffalo Creek as a case study in impoundment design, hazard classification, emergency action planning, and community warning systems.
Why it still matters
Buffalo Creek is a story of engineering, law, and public policy, but first it is a story of people in a narrow valley who bore the risks of poorly designed waste dams. The record is clear that the wave that morning was an act of man. The lesson is equally clear. In Appalachia, where industrial landscapes sit close to homes and schools, safety margins must be generous, oversight must be real, and warnings must reach every porch in time.
Sources & Further Reading
Buffalo Creek Flood and Disaster: Official Report from the Governor’s Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry (1972). West Virginia Humanities Council, e-WV document portal. West Virginia Encyclopedia
Davies, W. E., Bailey, J. F., and Kelly, D. B., West Virginia’s Buffalo Creek Flood: A Study of the Hydrology and Engineering Geology, USGS Circular 667 (1972). U.S. Geological Survey+1
USGS Hydrologic Atlas HA-547, Plate 1: Flood on Buffalo Creek from Saunders to Man, West Virginia (1974). U.S. Geological Survey
NOAA, Report to the Administrator on the Buffalo Creek Disaster (April 17, 1972). NOAA Institutional Repository
U.S. Bureau of Mines / NIOSH, Analysis of Coal Refuse Dam Failure, Middle Fork Buffalo Creek, Saunders, W. Va., Vol. 1 (OFR 10(1)-73, 1973). CDC Stacks
U.S. Senate, 92nd Congress, hearings on the Buffalo Creek disaster, May 30–31, 1972, with witness lists and daily digest entries. GovInfo+1
GAO, A National Dam Safety Program and related 1977 testimony on implementation of Public Law 92-367. Government Accountability Office+1
Appalshop, The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man film and transcript. buffalocreekflood.org
Marshall University Special Collections, Depositions of Survivors of Buffalo Creek Flood, Dennis Prince et al. v. Pittston (finding aid and PDFs). Marshall Digital Scholar+1
WVU Libraries, Buffalo Creek Disaster scrapbooks, clippings, and photographs; Governor Arch A. Moore Jr. papers. archives.lib.wvu.edu+2onview.lib.wvu.edu+2
Public Law 92-367, An Act to Authorize the Secretary of the Army to Undertake a National Program of Inspection of Dams (Aug. 8, 1972), Statutes at Large and CFR implementation. Congress.gov+1
WVU College of Law, Buffalo Creek Timeline with citations to filings and the Ad Hoc Commission. law.wvu.edu
Kai T. Erikson, Everything in Its Path (1976).
Gerald M. Stern, The Buffalo Creek Disaster (1976).
e-WV: Buffalo Creek Flood, concise overview with primary-source links. West Virginia Encyclopedia