The Buffalo Creek Flood

On February 26, 1972, a coal-waste dam owned by the Pittston Company collapsed at the head of a crowded hollow in southern West Virginia. A wall of sludge, debris, and water tore through the valley below, leaving in its wake 125 dead and 4,000 homeless. In The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man, Appalshop filmmaker Mimi Pickering juxtaposes interviews with survivors, representatives of union and citizen groups, and officials of the Pittston Company with actual footage of the flood and scenes of the ensuing devastation. As reasons for the disaster are sought out and examined, evidence mounts that company officials knew of the hazard in advance of the flood, and that the dam was in violation of state and federal regulations. The Pittston Company, however, continued to deny any wrongdoing, maintaining that the disaster was "an act of God."