Ralph Smith, lost in the flood and buried in an unknown plot.: The Johnstown Flood occurred on May 31, 1889. It was the result of the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam situated on the Little Conemaugh River 14 miles upstream of the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, USA, made worse by several days of extremely heavy rainfall. The dam's failure unleashed a torrent of 20 million tons of water from the reservoir known as Lake Conemaugh. The flood killed 2,209 people.
