Subsequent Mine Safety and Health Administration Buffalo Mining Companys 3/4 (SPRING/SUMMER 2009), pp. For those sympathetic to the survivors, Rabins statement rings true. amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual"; The Buffalo Creek Disaster - Los Angeles County Bar Association EN English Deutsch Franais Espaol Portugus Italiano Romn Nederlands Latina Dansk Svenska Norsk Magyar Bahasa Indonesia Trke Suomi Latvian Lithuanian esk Unknown The Earth Justice organization, one of the environmental groups following this issue, has complied a U.S. map of these sites as shown above. Media Blow Held Worse Than Flood, Charleston Gazette, March 8, 1972. The current members of [the Governors] panel are either oriented to coal or apologists for the tragedy, so we are creating our own commission of 19 residents to take testimony from eyewitnesses, said Pat McClintock at the time. [Gerald M Stern] -- This volume describes the Buffalo Creek Flood -- and also the investigation and legal actions that followed. the court. Suite 401 The floods aftermath was widespread property destruction and the deaths of 125 people three of which were babies who were never identified. October 5, 1973Plaintiffs filed supplemental more definite statement The tautly-worded 31-page report offered detailed findings and evidence of corporate negligence and government failures in the disaster, and proposed 21 recommendations. Pittston filed a lengthy memorandum setting forth new facts and arguments to support It just broke your heart to see firsthand the devastation that water could do, he would tell a Herald Dispatch reporter. At that time, and made decisions on future trial structure. Uploaded by api-369440949. amzn_assoc_asins = "0821415565,1467135496,0345543254,0618872248"; Last month the Environmental Protection Agency ordered utilities to stop dumping waste into unlined storage ponds and speed up plans to close leaking or otherwise dangerous coal ash sites. 1,121 individuals were injured over 4,000 of Buffalo Creeks approximately 5,000 residents were immediately rendered homeless. 201 12th StS G. ERALD . They also worried about the mining practice of dumping coal mining slag or gob coal mining waste into the dams. AprilOver 1,000 residents registered claims with Pittston. But West Virginia newspapers in the area were covering the tragedy closely, as the grim business of accounting for the dead, injured, and homeless continued. 344.754 S839. Buffalo Creek Mine Disaster 50th Anniversary amzn_assoc_search_bar = "true"; March 5, 1972. Were owned by the coal company. Buffalo Creek, whose habitat was destroyed along a 17-mile (27-kilometer) stretch, is teeming with trout again, after a steady, coordinated effort by Harvey and others to get back what they once had and share it with future generations. Click to visit that site. Were going to live here as long as he works here, she said, adding that without the dam, we could be over here safely.. This subcommittee would hear from dozens of witnesses, and was briefed at one point by experts from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who provided a scale model of the site with details of what happened (see photo below). He said the impoundment failure at Buffalo Creek was accompanied by multiple warnings. document.getElementById( "ak_js_3" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); JSTOR Daily provides context for current events using scholarship found in JSTOR, a digital library of academic journals, books, and other material. A few helicopters were used initially until local miners and others, and the National Guard, began clearing debris and building makeshift roads and bridges. The fact that the plaintiffs were involved in a lawsuit against Pittston instead of passively accepting their fate was alone evidence of their ability to cope, Ewen and Lewis write, essentially arguing that Everything in Its Path is myopic in its attention on the communitys destruction. 2. February 26, 2022, was the 50th anniversary of the Buffalo Creek Flood in West Virginia that killed 125 people and left 4,000 homeless. June 4, 1974Proposed representative plaintiff lists from both sides due. Julie Robinson, Buffalo Creek Miracle Baby Tells Story to Readers Digest, Charleston Gazette, January 26, 2013. recommended an emergency spillway on Dam #3 in his inspection report. Headlines from 'The Springfield Republican' of Massachusetts, report on the 'W.Va. Thanks for visiting and if you like what you find here, please make a donation to help support the research and writing at this website. The huge wall of coal wastewater was 30 feet high and 550 feet wide as it gouged its way down the hollow, first smashing through Saunders and then, successively through Pardee, Lorado, Londale, and a dozen other small villages in the narrow creek valley. Many coal waste impoundments had to be either modified or closed to eliminate hazardous conditions. 1 & 2. October 23, 1890: "Wreck on the C&O" November 4, 1985: Floods devastate West Virginia. Kentucky has 102. The wall of water exploded 3 was under construction and about 50 percent completed. Survey geologist inspects the Buffalo Creek dam and concludes that it was basically March 21, 1972Pittstons board of directors authorizedBMCto establish 39, No. of Law Dean Willard Lorensen) brings no criminal indictments against Pittston. In March 1967, a partial collapse at one of the dams caused some flooding in the hollow, alarming residents already concerned about the structures. I go to fire departments and teach about nuclear fallout. McClintock was a field worker for the Black Lung Association, an organization focused on the debilitating disease common to miners. After last year, Pierson, who now lives in Scott Depot, made the drive home to Logan County once again to reminisce with other survivors. Tom Nugent, Death at Buffalo Creek: The 1972 West Virginia Flood Disaster, New York: Norton, 1973. The first coal mining in the Buffalo Creek watershed dated to the 1910s when a few coal camps small mining towns sprang up following the first rail lines into the area to exploit the coal there. Consumer Information of 38 West Virginia Coal Waste Dams warning about Aberfam. that the ultimate effect of [any] claims [related to the Buffalo Creek disaster] Pittston, meanwhile, would inform its investors that the 1974 settlement that had come with one of the survivors' lawsuits did not impact the company's profit margin. injury claims of 33 plaintiffs, published 63 F.R.D. of Inquiry into the Buffalo Creek Floods documents. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.. Thunderstorms this evening will give way to steady rain overnight. I was thrown from side to side and crushed, he recounted, my insides was crushed so hard it just seemed my eyeballs was trying to pop out, and I couldnt get my breath at all. One resident at the scene, later quoted in in Kai T. Eriksons book, Everything in Its Path, noted of the onrushing tide: This water, when it came down through here, it acted real funny. a claims office in Buffalo Creek.Pittston moved for summary judgment because Pittston 28 (S.D. Robert Shogan's 2004 book, "The Battle of Blair Mountain". Death, Destruction, Terror of 1972 Buffalo Creek Disaster Still Vivid, The Herald-Dispatch, January 15, 2009. To address this problem, two of the main actions taken by the U.S. Bureau of Mines (the federal mine safety agency at that time, now MSHA) were to strengthen the regulations governing the construction of dams by coal mining companies, and to develop in-house technical expertise on impoundment safety. Roads werent where they used to be, nor were houses. The flood, known as the Buffalo Creek disaster, is considered one of the worst disasters in both American and Mountain State history. 2/3 (152/153) (2018), pp. JSTOR is part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization helping the academic community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways. Mimi Pickering (Film Director), Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man (essay), Library of Congress, 1978 (in 1984, filmmaker Mimi Pickering completed Buffalo Creek Revisited, an update on the flood and its consequences). /08. MayA group of Buffalo Creek disaster survivors traveled to Pittstons survivor syndrome, what is known today as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). A wave of nearly 130 million gallons of water and other material (a total volume estimated to be between 300 and 400 acre-feet) roared down the Buffalo Creek valley at a velocity estimated to be 20 feet per second in its initial three miles. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure youre on a federal government site. The lawsuit and the book provide the In 1971, Pittston was cited for over 5,000 safety violations at its mines nationally. Journal of Appalachian Studies, Vol. Hall agreed and the documents When the impoundments up in the hills gave way that February morning, a tsunami-like wall of thick, black coal wastewater went crashing down the hollow, wiping out homes and lives. Your access to this service has been limited. One retired coal miner who survived the flood, but who lost his wife, daughter and granddaughter in the disaster, explained what he experienced in one. At approximately 8 a.m. on Feb. 26, 1972, a man-made coal slurry impoundment dam, which was operated by the Pittston Coal Company, burst following a prolonged period of heavy rainfall. You may unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the provided link on any marketing message. Coal and Labor Collection, Appalachian Collection, McConnell Library, Radford University, Radford, Virginia. Hearing before the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs United States Senate July 20, 1972. They looked like huge metallic pretzels. When the water set it down again, it just flattened out on the ground. His words paint a picture of a bleak future for a people suffering from a cyclical system of abuse. The governors acquiescence proved costly for the state, as West Virginia ended up forced to reimburse the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers $9 million for recovery work. February 1972. Williams wasnt alone in pointing to the ravages of strip mining. A motion to make the resolution binding on Pittston management was defeated by The Buffalo Creek Flood and Disaster: Official Report from the Governors Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry, 1973 (PDF of actual report at Marshall University). National Guard helicopters picked up survivors and delivered supplies. Old community ties and neighbor networks could not be reestablished. Nader had sent one of his investigators, a young West Virginia lawyer named Davitt McAteer (who years later would head up the U.S. George Vecsey, Homeless Thousands Await Future in Flooded Valley, New York Times (front page), February 29, 1972. The Buffalo Creek Flood and Disaster: Official Report From the Governors Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry, 1973 (as posted at: wvculture.org). Pittston, meanwhile, would inform its investors that the 1974 settlement that had come with one of the survivors lawsuits did not impact the companys profit margin. During the flood, 125 people lost their lives, 1,100 were injured and 4,000 were left homeless. U.S. General Accounting Office, Delayed Redevelopment was Reasonable after Flood Disaster in West Virginia, Report of the Comptroller of the United States, Washington, DC: 1976. And people died instantly when that tidal wave came through the valley.. Half of its downstream side slumped but 141-144, Cambridge University Press on behalf of the British Association for American Studies, Asian Journal of Social Science, Vol. [I]n true Appalachian fashion, few people are ready to accept the responsibility of leadership is another. You know, its not like your house burned down, Hall said. Part of that is to tell the survivors' story, to make it impossible . There was a gold trout out there I was trying to catch, he said. Death in Buffalo Hollow, Newsweek, March 13, 1972. Justice v. Pittston class action by now-Judge Phillip Gaujot on behalf of 348 children The state of West Virginia also sued Pittston for $100 million for disaster and relief damages, but Governor Arch A. Moore settled that case for just $1 million three days before leaving office in 1977. Mining industry-related incidents are a longstanding reality for the residents of West Virginia, Young writes, echoing the sentiments Ralph Nader expressed decades earlier. The Citizens Commission found Pittston Coal reckless and negligent and the state negligent in ensuring safety compliance. 27, No. (plus appendices, vol. Comments to: jdoyle@pophistorydig.com. 1967The U.S. Department of Interior releases its Report on Condition Pierson said the school he was attending, Lorado Grade School, was destroyed in the flood, and its principal, who he identified as Mr. Ramey, was killed. Buffalo Creek, West Virginia Division of Culture and History, 2012. Ive got uranium and all kinds of radioactive stuff in my bedroom. studied the 1972 Buffalo Creek flood in WV. West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History. One thing that really impressed me, though, was there was no immediate display of emotion, Porterfield said, remembering the survivors. a federal safety standard prohibiting refuse piles from impeding drainage or impounding Moore regarding their request that a coal miner be added to the commission, a separate Citizens Commission was formed to provide an independent review of the disaster. June 7, 1974Judge Hall declined to act on Pittstons motion to dismiss plaintiffs Vintage. with little windows and doors and a small latch on 2 to handle excessive runoff. president stops any efforts to warn residents and reassures the police that the Pittston settled all property damage claims. Jack Doyle, Buffalo Creek Disaster: 1972, ensued. In addition, coal wastes have also been dumped into abandoned deep mines and used to reclaim strip mines. The Charleston Gazette of February 1972 reporting on the early flood death total, with front-page photo of damaged homes thrown about on the valley floor. Davis managed to rescue two of his sons, and his neighbors helped pull his 17-year-old daughter from the waters two miles down the hollow. Jack Doyle, "Buffalo Creek Disaster: 1972,"PopHistoryDig, January 31, 2019. wvculture/history/buffcreek . settled a lawsuit over this breakdown. BUFFALO CREEK, W.Va Sunday marked the 45th anniversary of the deadly Buffalo Creek disaster in Logan . In 2002, Alpha Natural Resources purchased what remained of Pttstons coal business. The problem of coal waste impoundments in Appalachia and all across America has not gone away since the 1972 Buffalo Creek disaster. The Buffalo Creek Disaster: The Story of the Survivors . PopHistoryDig.com, January 31, 2019. amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit0"; 79-100. there wasnt any flood. A separate settlement for survivors amounted to about $13,000 per plaintiff. Citing coal industry dereliction throughout central Appalachia, they said it was imperative for Congress to investigate the industrys practice of erecting crudely-made coal refuse dams and propose legislation to prevent future disasters. However, adequate funding was never appropriated by teh West Virginia legislature to enforce the law. Court to make the plaintiffs state their dollar damage claims with more particularity. The headlines the next day played the catastrophe as a flood disaster, as there had been heavy rain. Today is the 49th anniversary of one of the worst mining catastrophes in West Virginia history, the Buffalo Creek Disaster. Twenty-seven years of follow-up research by teams of both . Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson, Many Coal Sludge Impoundments Have Weak Walls, Federal Study Says, Washington Post, April 24, 2013. (1976). If you are a WordPress user with administrative privileges on this site, please enter your email address in the box below and click "Send". 3 failed. Pittston failed to obtain an independent engineering opinion on the Buffalo Arch Moore agreed to a $1,000,000 settlement just days. "$1, 000, 001 Settlement in Flood Suit," Charleston Gazette, 11-15-1977. Property damage is estimated to be upward of $50 million or more. Disaster at Buffalo Creek Health and safety engineer Jack Spadaro was teaching at West Virginia University when the disaster occurred. In the blink of an eye, people's lives completely changed; lives were lost, houses were gone and families were destroyed. One resident at the scene, later quoted in in Kai T. Eriksons book. However, he did question the ability of the overflow pipes in Dam No. It ripped homes from their foundations, swept up cars, mobile homes, and bridges, and even left twisted rail lines in a few places before it finished its destructive run over 17 miles to the Guyandotte River. Jack Spadaro, a mine safety investigator and environmental specialist, has made it his life's work to prevent such disasters from happening again. And I aint never seen God up there driving no bulldozer dumping slate on that dam. Her remarks won applause from most everyone in the room. Many homes were lost during the Buffalo Creek mining disaster in 1972. George Vecsey, West Virginia Flood Toll At 60 With Hundreds Lost, New York Times, February 28, 1972. million deductible in response to the Dola, W. Va., dam failure. Stern describes victims losing family members before their eyes, and the devastation caused by the flood. But those improved practices didnt last. When the water set it down again, it just flattened out on the ground. Robert Shy, among those in the West Virginia Army National Guard who helped during the crisis, flew helicopters up and down the valley delivering water and milk and picking up dazed and injured survivors. #3 in his inspection report. March 1972Arnold & Porter agreed to represent the Buffalo Creek Citizens spillway on Dam #3. Its worth noting that, following Buffalo Creek, two commissions were launched. 1955(March) Pittston coal refuse dam broke at Lick Fork, Virginia. two telephone books worth of victim statements. The association bought habitat structures to further help form the pools that trout prefer. Railroad rails were twisted, cars were everywhere, bridges were on the roads instead of over the creek.. I didnt want to drown. 1966A United Kingdom coal-waste dump in South Aberfam, Wales similar More than a dozen towns were inundated and 125 people lost their lives. Pittston was also the fifth largest corporate landowner in the Appalachian region at the time, holding nearly 375,000 acres. In February 1968, Saunders resident Mrs. Pearl Woodrum wrote a letter of complaint to then Governor Hulett Smith saying in effect, the dams were unsafe. As of February 1st, 1972, dam No. It was a recipe for disaster as the trio of dams was inadequate to handle runoff from large rainstorms, like the one that dumped several inches of rain on Logan County by early Saturday morning, Feb. 26. In just a few brief moments, 125 people were killed, 1,100 were injured, and over 4,000 were left without homes [1] as the result of a collapsed coal waste dam. amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "thpohidill-20"; (ABA Required Disclosures). . buffalo creek disaster 1 - Free download as Word Doc (.doc / .docx), PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online for free. The. for authority to build a $350 million oil refinery and tanker terminal. A number of leaks and smaller spills have also occurred. to let the plaintiffs see Pittstons insurance documents and refused to keep The Concept 2 . The historic Buffalo Creek flood tore through a region often exploited by industryand stereotyped by outsiders. When the deluge receded, he saw bodies along the long walk to check on relatives, images that have been seared into the veterans mind. [I]f you dont do something, she wrote, prophetically, were all going to be washed away. Her letter did bring a state inspector to visit the dams. On Saturday, the community showed they are still standing with a room full of survivors coming . United States Senate, Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, Subcommittee on Labor, Buffalo Creek (W. Va.) Disaster 1972, Hearings, May 30 and 31, 1972, 2 vols. Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles. Another survivor and eye witness recounted what he saw to a Logan Banner reporter: It was throwing houses around like matchstems and it was picking up cars like they were eggshells, Two other witnesses reported to the Logan Banner that they saw bodies getting hung in trees The water was black and it was carrying homes and timber Another man added: I just didnt believe I would see that much water and houses floating down the creek. But his youngest son and daughter and his wife were among the missing. July 5, 1973Judge Hall granted plaintiffs motion to amend their complaint. From chaos to responsibility The litigation initiated by the 625 survivors of the Buffalo Creek flood who refused to settle with the coal company claims office was a landmark case. Judge Hall suggests selecting 4-5 sample cases on the question of liability. Thomas N. Bethell and Davitt McAteer, The Pittston Mentality: Manslaughter on Buffalo Creek, Washington Monthly, May 1972. What was the actual settlement agreement in the Buffalo Creek disaster? document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Mannix Porterfield, a reporter who covered the events of that tragic day, later recalled the destruction left in the floods wake. May 1972, Wash., DC. A U.S. Geological Privacy Policy Contact Us U.S. map showing locations of coal ash waste dams, spills, and contamination compiled by Earth Justice. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines (W. A. Wahler & Associates), Analysis of Coal Refuse Dam Failure. The state Legislature had sued Pittston for $100 million. dams. President Richard Nixon, then in China, had contacted Moore by phone to promise Federal disaster aid. They also worried about the mining practice of dumping coal mining slag or gob coal mining waste into the dams. As the wave moved down the mountain valley it wiped out much of what stood in its path. The following morning, his wifes birthday, Harvey was on his way to pick up a cake, but police had the road blocked off. Buffalo Creek Special Series, Charleston Gazette, February 1997. (AP Photo/John Raby). and highway, demolished seven houses, killed six people, and injured four. Feb 28, 1972, The Logan Banner of Logan, WV reports on the search for victims, relief effort, and first-hand accounts. April 16, 1971WVDNR Inspector recommended an emergency spillway on Dam problems with implementation. Dredging by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers helped but did nothing to support trout habitat. Film Clip, The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act Of Man, YouTube.com (8:22), February 20, 2012. At one point, West Virginia Governor Arch Moore, complaining that the states image was getting a bad rap from the media, closed the Buffalo Creek area to reporters. 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. Many lived in temporary trailer-park style homes following the disaster some for years. (BMCs) dam #1 fails causes a steam explosion and damaging the Saunders community The people of Appalachia seem to be forever poised at some vague mid-point between ability and disability, is one such Erikson statement. Pittston had made only one payment for $4,000. "Coal: A Human History", 2016 edition. Still, the reported number of dead and missing varied with each days news reports, a reflection of the difficulty in finding and identifying bodies in the aftermath. Each upstream dam was built several hundred yards upstream of the previous dam. Jules Loh, Associated Press, A Lie About God From Paradise to Hell: The Morning When False Alarms Turned to Reality, The Sunday Messenger (Athens, OH), front page, March 5, 1972. The outcome of the lawsuits surrounding Buffalo Creek go far in demonstrating the power divide between the haves and the have-nots in Appalachia. Arch Moore accepted a settlement offer of $1 million from the Pittston Coal Company. The first coal camps at Buffalo Creek were built. The owner of this site is using Wordfence to manage access to their site. 45, No. Buffalo Creek Disaster YE HAO GBL395 Summer 2014 Synopsis: . This resolution was passed in spirit only. Stern met with plaintiffs and obtained settlement authority. The only warning we had was just a neighbor woman had spotted it and just pulled in front of our house and hollered, Run, the dam has broke! remembered survivor Shirley Marcum. Human relationships in this community had been derived from traditional bonds of kinship and neighborliness. Click for copy. A roadside historical marker describing the Buffalo Creek coal impoundment disaster is shown Feb. 22, 2022, in Man, W.Va. Fifty years ago in West Virginia, the collapse of an coal-waste impoundment unleashed a torrent of black water into a narrow valley. The couple had nine children. 1904The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad completed its Charleston, W.Va., The Buffalo Creek flood was a disaster that occurred on February 26, 1972, when the Pittston Coal Company's coal slurry impoundment dam #3, located on a hillside in Logan County, West Virginia, burst, four days after having been declared 'satisfactory' by a federal mine inspector. Survivors of 1972 Dam Disaster Accept $13.5-Million Settlement, New York Times, July 6, 1974. The chair of the citizens commission, Norman Williams, then deputy director of West Virginias Department of Natural Resources, called for the outlawing of strip mining throughout the state. annual stockholders meeting in Richmond, Va., to petition for fair restitution. Gertie Moore was a bus driver when the flood happened and over a half-century later, she still grows emotional when hearing the names of the deceased and recalling the events of that fateful day. Sources: The Herald Dispatch, newspaper of Huntington, WV, Thomas Marsh, and the West Virginia Division of Culture and History. But these werent the only investigations; there were also several others, including: one or more Congressional committees, the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Work began on drafting a settlement. 417-424, Appalachian Journal, Vol. should not be material in relation to [Pittstons] consolidated financial position.. Home; The site is secure. The Buffalo Creek disaster, however, did galvanize concern about strip mining and coal safety in Congress, and helped to spur passage of regulatory bills on the House side during Congressional debate in the early 1970s. Instead, the builders end-dumped and shoved loosely compacted layers of coarse refuse across the valley. The three dams also served as something of a crude pollution-prevention system: filtering, settling out, and retaining the dirty prep plant particles and toxins found in the coal wastewater, also enabling some reuse of the water in processing. The law appears ill-suited to relieve the victims of a disaster, who often have been scarred emotionally not by physical contact but by the destruction of their families, homes, and communities, writes Robert L. Rabin in a 1978 Stanford Law Review article examining the legal ramifications of Buffalo Creek. An accounting of the disaster, and multiple investigations, would then proceed to piece together what had happened there, focused on the coal mining and dam building. Then in December 2008 a second major impoundment breach occurred this time, a failure of a giant 84-acre coal ash impoundment at the Tennessee Valley Authoritys (TVA) Kingston Fossil Plant in eastern Tennessee (photo above). Buffalo Area Declared Health, Safety Hazard, Logan Banner, March 1, 1972. MSHA said 49 impoundments pose a significant hazard because of the potential damage from a failure. Kai T. Erikson, Everything in Its Path: Destruction of Community in the Buffalo Creek Flood, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1976. K.T. (Rockefeller would later be elected governor and U.S. An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the e-mail address listed on your account. about her fears that the dam would collapse. And for the survivors of the Buffalo Creek Disaster, there was little real recovery. And I aint never seen God up there driving no bulldozer dumping slate on that dam. Her remarks won applause from most everyone in the room. F.3d 349 (4th Cir. A wave from the waste dam flooded and destroyed the Buffalo Creek community [2]. In 1974, the 645 Buffalo Creek residents suing Pittston Coal settled for $13.5 million, which amounted to approximately $13,000 paid out to each plaintiff. West Virginia has the most with 108. West Virginias Secretary of State at the time, Jay Rockefeller (D) who became a candidate for Governor running against Arch Moore in the 1972 fall election also favored banning strip mining. We publish articles grounded in peer-reviewed research and provide free access to that research for all of our readers. How much was the settlement? Nader commented, shortly after the flood, that the Buffalo Creek massacre is only one more in the long series of tragedies which coal corporations have perpetrated upon the people of Appalachia, especially of West Virginia. Note that Nader did not mince words, labelling the event a massacre..