Gerald M. Stern

In February 1972, in the rural mining area of West Virginia, a huge coal-waste pile (which was being used as a dam) broke apart, flowed downstream like a Tsunami and wiped out all the mining towns along the Buffalo Creek Hollow.

When I began this book, it felt to me like I was sitting with the author as he told the story of how he took on the conglomerate Pittson Coal. The writing was not so great, there were parts where I felt it dragged. However, the story itself examines the psychological aspect of what occurred and stayed with the survivors of this disaster . This was the first case of what we now know as PTSD to come before the courts. This part of the story intrigued me.

More of a Legal story than a survivor story, but still worth the time I spent learning about it.… (more)

Very moving. This displays the whole litigation process very well. From answers to the long drawn out discovery process, people playing the blame game, etc we see the whole case play out. Reading the Buffalo Creek stories made me tearful.

Now, the overall reading experience isn’t entertaining, but I consider it like a court transcript. The author can be a little much at times. Like, sir, we don’t really care about you finding your purpose from these cases. Save that for an autobiography. Minor pet peeve: the use of “blacks” bugged me. Can you say black people? Are you dividing your sock drawer or talking about human beings?

Anywho, I see why my teacher assigned this book. This can be summed up into “beating the Act of God.”
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