On May 31, 1889, at 3:10pm, the South Fork Dam collapsed, releasing nearly 5 billion gallons of water in 35-40 minutes into the Little Conemaugh River (about the same amount of water that flows over Niagara Falls). One hour later, a wall of water—60 feet high in some places—hit the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, devastating the town and sweeping more than 2200 people to their deaths. The courts ruled the disaster was an Act Of God, and the heavy rainfall certainly was. But it was decisions made by man that caused the dam to collapse; decisions that eliminated the margin of safety every dam—and every organization and person—needs when the pressure is rising.
I do not claim to be a dam designer, but I know that margin matters. Well-designed dams have a margin of safety—a way to release rising water before it puts the dam at risk. There are discharge pipes that can be opened to lower the level of the water and spillways that release rising water before it reaches the top of the dam. The higher the water, the greater the pressure on the dam, so releasing the water before it reaches the top of the dam is critically important.
At the South Fork dam, there were no discharge pipes. As the rain hammered down and the water continued to rise, there was nothing they could do but watch. Higher and higher the water rose until it reached the spillway. But the spillway was clogged and couldn’t do its job. In order to keep fish from escaping the lake, a screen had been put across the spillway. During the heavy rain, all kinds of debris had drifted down the lake, caught on the screen and clogged the spillway, making it nearly useless. No discharge pipes and a clogged spillway meant rising water putting higher and higher pressure on the dam. No margin. A recipe for disaster? Yes.
And it’s a recipe for disaster in your personal life and for your organization. Margin matters. When the pressure is on, you better have a way of lowering the level of the water. Make sure your discharge pipes are working and your spillways not clogged. If you let the pressure rise too much, sooner or later, you—or your organization—will collapse and the casualty list will be high.
But there is more to margin than just avoiding disasters. Brad Lomenick had this to say about margin in a 2013 blog:
“Margin is a powerful concept. It creates opportunities. For businesses, margin is one of your top priorities. Margin in business creates profits. Margin in family creates memories. Margin in your personal finances creates generosity. Margin in friendships creates significance and impact. Margin in our lives overall creates options. Options to pursue dreams, think, pray, relax, meditate, process, grow and ultimately live life more fully.” (Making Time For Margin, bradlomenick.com)
Feeling the pressure today? Don’t ignore it. Do something about it! Do something to avoid disaster and to “create opportunities.”
Any reason you can’t start cleaning out your spillways today?
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© Copyright 2015 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
Lesson #4 from the Johnstown flood of 1889
One of the most famous of Aesop’s Fables is The Boy Who Cried Wolf. A young shepherd boy—bored with watching the sheep—falsely and repeatedly cried “Wolf! Wolf!” to alert the villagers that a wolf was attacking the flock. When the inevitable happened and a wolf actually did attack the flocks, the villagers ignored his warnings and the flock was destroyed.
The people of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, had lived in the danger zone below the South Fork dam for years. They knew the dam could fail, even believed it would some day, but:
“The townspeople…grew calloused to the possibility of danger…
`that dam will give way, but it won’t ever happen to us.’ ”
(From The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough)
When the inevitable actually did happen, the warning that arrived at the telegraph office was ignored:
“…it created no alarm in his mind. He had heard such warnings before.”
(From The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough)
The town was destroyed and more than 2000 people were swept away in just ten minutes when the wall of water—up to 60 feet high—hit Johnstown. Most of those people had time to get to higher ground if the warning had gone out and been heeded.
In every part of life, we ignore the Danger Zone warnings at our own peril.
Every business is unique, but one Danger Zone warning common to all is if your best and brightest employees are leaving. Ignore that warning at your own peril.
In churches, if long time supporters and friends are drifting away to other ministries, that is a Danger Zone warning. Ignore it at your own peril.
In life, if you are borrowing money to pay for normal living expenses, you are in the Danger Zone. Bankruptcy is just around the corner if you ignore the warning.
You cannot avoid living in the danger zone, but you can pay attention to the warning signs.
“…it won’t ever happen to us” is a perilous way to live.
Lesson #3 From The Johnstown Flood (1889)
When the South Fork dam collapsed in 1889, sending 5 billion gallons of water hurtling down the Little Conemaugh River toward Johnstown, Pennsylvania, (sweeping more than 2000 people to their deaths), the courts blamed God since He is in charge of rainfall. That’s convenient, but it’s not as simple as that.
In Lesson #1 we learned that brush, hemlock boughs, hay and horse manure were used to repair the cracks and leaks in the dam. Horse manure? Yes! No wonder the dam collapsed. But it’s not as simple as that.
In Lesson #2 we learned that the discharge pipes were removed and the spillways clogged so there was no way to release the water as it rose. No wonder the dam was breached when the heavy rains came. But it’s not as simple as that.
At some point, a few feet were graded off of the top of the dam so it would be wide enough for carriages to pass each other as they enjoyed an afternoon of sight seeing—going back and forth across the dam. After all, the top of the dam is the very best place to view the lake and one way carriage traffic is very inconvenient. The lowered dam meant it would be breached sooner as the rains came. But it’s not as simple as that.
Somehow, no one knows for sure how, when the grading was finished there was a low spot in the middle of the dam. Therefore, when the water began to first breach the dam, it was at the low spot in the middle where the water pressure is the highest. (The pressure is highest where the water is deepest.) So the highest pressure was at the lowest and weakest part of the dam. Surely that explains why it failed. But it’s not as simple as that.
There is no simple explanation as to why the dam failed. A combination of record rainfall, horse manure, clogged spillways, a widened carriage path and shoddy grading job were all in the mix. But it’s not as simple as that because except for the rainfall, all of these things happened because of decisions made by the South Fork Dam leaders. The dam failed because it was weak, but it was weak because the leadership was weak.
Organization failures often follow the same pattern as the South Fork dam: cut a little here, a poor decision there, some compromise for convenience, ignore some known weaknesses, add in some extra pressure from the outside, then boom, the whole thing (business, church, family, etc.) suddenly and rapidly collapses and a lot of people are swept away. Call it whatever you want, but the truth is: it’s a leadership failure.
Leadership is not easy and it’s not simple because complexity is a fact of life. Businesses are complex. Ministries are complex. Government is complex. Even families are complex. There are a lot of things that can go wrong and it’s the leader’s job to make sure they don’t. So the next time you hear yourself saying “it’s a no brainer” or “that’s simple,” be careful, because not much in today’s world is really as simple as that.
[Read the full story of the flood in The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough, my favorite author in the genre of American history.]
Lesson #2 From The Johnstown Flood.
We sat, glued to the TV for two days (May 1-2, 2010), watching in real time as the waters kept rising. The Cumberland River, the Harpeth and the Stones, all overflowed to levels not seen in over 50 years. Downtown Nashville went under, along with Opryland, east Nashville, Bellevue and Franklin, all victims to the great Nashville Flood of 2010. Before it was over, thousands of homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed and 21 people were dead. But it could have been worse, much worse.
Nashville is down river from five dams (Center Hill, Cordell Hull, Dale Hollow, Percy Priest and Old Hickory). These dams hold back thousands of times as much water as did the South Fork Dam above Johnstown, Pennsylvania. All released a lot of water, but they didn’t collapse. Two of them, the Old Hickory and Percy Priest dams, are as close to Nashville as South Fork was to Johnstown. If either of these dams had collapsed…well, don’t even think about it.
In addition to being patched with horse manure (see last week’s post), why did the South Fork dam collapse, sweeping away more than 2000 people?
Two important features of dam design are (1) discharge pipes that can be opened to lower the level of the water and (2) spillways that release rising water before it reaches the top of the dam. The higher the water, the greater the pressure on the dam, so releasing the water before it reaches the top of the dam is critically important.
At the South Fork dam, there were no discharge pipes…no way at all to lower the level of the water. As the rain hammered down and the water continued to rise, there was nothing they could do but watch. Higher and higher the water rose until it reached the spillway. But the spillway was clogged and couldn’t do its job. In order to keep fish from escaping the lake, a screen of closely spaced rods had been put across the spillway. During the heavy rain, all kinds of debris had drifted down the lake, caught on the rods and clogged the spillway, making it nearly useless. No discharge pipes…a clogged spillway…rising water and higher and higher pressure on a dam repaired with horse manure. A recipe for disaster? Yes.
And it’s a recipe for disaster in your personal life and for your organization. When the pressure is on, you better have a way of lowering the level of the water. Make sure your discharge pipes are working and your spillways not clogged. If you let the pressure rise too much, sooner or later, you—or your organization—will collapse and the casualty list will be high.
Feeling the pressure today? Don’t ignore it. Do something about it! A few suggestions that can help your organization, you personally, or both:
◊ Simplify—reduce the number of activities, projects, programs, special events
◊ Get help—don’t carry the load by yourself
◊ Rest—sometimes the best thing you can do is just shut down for a few days
◊ Exercise and eat right
◊ Make sure you aren’t the source of the pressure
Any reason you can’t start cleaning out your spillways today?
[For the full story of the flood, read The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough, my favorite author in the genre of American history.]
Lesson #1 From The Johnstown Flood.
On May 31, 1889, at 3:10pm, the South Fork Dam collapsed, releasing nearly 5 billion gallons of water in 35-40 minutes into the Little Conemaugh River (about the same amount of water that flows over Niagara Falls). One hour later, a wall of water—60 feet high in some places—hit the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, devastating the town and sweeping more than 2200 people to their deaths. The courts ruled the disaster was an Act Of God, and the heavy rainfall certainly was. But the collapse of the dam was caused by the acts of men. There is a lot for us to learn from the story of the Johnstown Flood, lessons that can help us avoid disaster in our personal lives and in our businesses or ministries.
The first break in the South Fork Dam occurred in 1862. However, since the lake was only half full and the watchman reduced the pressure on the dam by opening the relief valves, there was little flooding and the event was soon forgotten. The dam was not repaired and the lake was nearly empty and unused for almost 20 years until the South Fork Fishing And Hunting Club purchased the property and undertook repairs. Well, repairs may be an exaggeration because what they really did—to save money—was:
“…set about repairing the dam by boarding up the stone culvert
and dumping in every manner of local rock, mud, brush, hemlock boughs, hay,
just about everything at hand. Even horse manure was used in some quantity.”
David McCullough
The Johnstown Flood
I do not claim to be an expert in the construction or repair of earthen dams. But I am pretty sure that brush, hemlock boughs, hay and horse manure are not particularly effective materials for repairing a 60 foot high dam holding back 5 billion gallons of water. Relief and repair are not the same thing. It is often easier, less costly, and faster to fix problems with horse manure, but sooner or later….
Problems do not go away, but they do go underground or are covered with horse manure. It will always be more costly in the long run to ignore, patch, or cover problems rather than fix them. The South Fork Dam was certain to collapse when the pressure got high enough, and whatever you have in your life…your business…your ministry that is patched with horse manure is certain to collapse too.
Start today. Don’t wait until it is too late. Use concrete and rebar to fix the leaks in your life and organization. In the long run, you’ll be glad you did.
[For the full story of the flood, read The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough, my favorite author in the genre of American history.]
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