Our morning was spent in a strange combination of symmetry and juxtaposition at two National Park Service national memorials; the Johnstown Flood NM and the Flight 93 NM.
They are only 30 miles and 112 years apart, but it seemed further. The flood memorial felt like an historic curiosity. The Flight 93 memorial felt like a fresh wound when the scab is peeled back.
There were 40 passengers and crew on Flight 93 and the toll from all four of the 9-11 planes that were highjacked was about 3,000.
The Johnstown flood had a similar loss of life, claiming 2,209 lives in the flood itself. Scores more died from disease and hundreds were unaccounted for.
In other words, the loss of life in the 9-11 attacks and the Johnstown flood were very similar.
The flood was caused when an earthen dam gave way 14 miles upstream from Johnstown, unleashing a wall of water from an impounded lake. The dam and the lake were created by the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, an exclusive retreat that catered to wealthy residents of Pittsburgh.
The dam had been breached decades earlier and the dangers were well-known. However, no one associated with the club was ever held to account for the negligence.
Obviously the two events are very different, but I was struck by the many similarities and the way that time has changed our perception of these two events.
We didn’t even take a camera with us when we went into the Johnstown Flood NM visitor center.
The Flight 93 memorial is still under construction. The plane crashed at an abandoned strip mine and the temporary memorial is housed in a metal building that was part of the mining operation.
It is spare and rudimentary; no interactive displays or anything like that.
But it is still powerful in its simplicity – and its freshness in memory.
They have a cork board in the metal building where people can write notes and post them with a push pin.
A striking number of the notes start with the words “thank you”. “Heroes” is another common word, as is the phrase “never forgotten.”
As I looked out over the crash site and watched the construction workers that are trying to meet the September 11, 2010 target for opening the memorial I wondered if it would become an historic footnote, like the Johnstown flood site, Pearl Harbor, Andersonville and dozens of other memorials in the NPS system where the occasional visitor doesn't bother to bring a camera.
I jotted down two of the postings on the cork board.
I wish the plane didn’t crash, but it did. I feel bad for you.
Ross Santos
It has been my honor to serve in your memory.
SSgt. Aaron R. Lotaro
Wyoming Army National Guard
The afternoon was spent driving west to Ohio, in preparation for tomorrow’s game between the Indians and the Red Sox.
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