Description
One Saturday morning in February 1972, an impoundment dam owned by the Pittston Coal Company burst, sending a 130 million gallon, 25 foot tidal wave of water, sludge, and debris crashing into southern West Virginia’s Buffalo Creek hollow. It used to be one of the crucial deadliest floods in U.S. history. 125 people were killed in an instant, more than 1,000 were injured, and over 4,000 were unexpectedly homeless. As a substitute of accepting the small settlements offered by the coal company’s insurance offices, a couple of hundred of the survivors banded together to sue. That is the story in their triumph over improbable odds and corporate irresponsibility, as told by Gerald M. Stern, who as a young lawyer and took at the case and won.