Mr. Santiago 10-B #19
Response of the Johnstown Flood
The Johnstown Flood, is an non-fiction story written by David McCullough.
McCullough, presents us the story of this catastrophic event, by constructing a scene, where the people in town, are struggling to survive of the rain, and the fall of the bad constructed South Fork dam. He never tell us who were the people who basically cause this enormous catastrophe, he just concentrate in the horrible experience he thinks the people in Johnstown had. In my opinion, based in the discussion done in class, Andrew Carnegie, and Henry Frick were the main responsible of this event. Particularly, Andrew Carnegie who was the owner of the dam, failed to take the necessary measures so that this disaster wouldn’t happen.
He and his colleagues actions were incredibly irresponsible because, if you’re a multimillionaire, and you’re the owner of something that could harm people, why you don’t fix the dam? And then, when the dam bursts its banks, just donated a miserably library for the people of the town! And then, when the history blamed him of the catastrophe, he decided to be a philanthropist in order to pay to the world all his wickedness. But, he’s the second richest man in the whole history. He can pay goods and services in an entire continent, and remain the second richest man in the world. Been a philanthropist was just a screen, so history can remember him as a great person. But truly, everybody knows the papers behind the table.
Carnegie and his colleagues doesn’t do the right thing with the dam, and also, they didn’t have to pay any compensation to the survivors. I think it was obvious that Carnegie had to pay a debt of millions to the town of Johnstown, but he did not, what he did