Government or official record
Report of the Governor's Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry into the Buffalo Creek Flood
West Virginia Archives and History
Where this source supports the record
Each entry separates the article’s editorial relevance note from its exact, section-level claims. A bibliography link without a direct claim is labeled plainly.
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Engineering failures · 26 February 1972Open article references →
The Buffalo Creek Flood
Buffalo Creek coal-waste dam and downstream valley · United States
Why editors use it hereContemporary state investigation of dams, warnings, failure, casualties, and responsibility.
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Quick read
On 26 February 1972, a coal-waste impoundment failed above Buffalo Creek in Logan County after heavy rain.
Reviewed 26 July 2026 -
Trigger and conditions
Several days of rain raised the upper pool behind Dam No.
Reviewed 26 July 2026 -
Uncertainty
The sequence of overtopping, internal erosion, and structural collapse is reconstructed from damaged evidence, but official investigation firmly identified unsafe impoundment practice.
Reviewed 26 July 2026 -
Why it matters
Buffalo Creek shows how industrial waste can become a dam without receiving the design, inspection, and emergency planning expected of one.
Reviewed 26 July 2026
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Quick read