People all over the nation, even the world, responded with donations of clothing, food, and shelter. Doctors, nurses and Clara Barton and the American Red Cross arrived to provide medical assistance and emergency shelter and supplies. The Johnstown Flood was the first major disaster served by the recently formed Red Cross. Doctors worried especially about diseases that might breed in the unclean water and decaying bodies of humans and animals.
Undertakers volunteered for the gruesome task of preparing over 2,000 bodies for burial. 700 of the victims could not be identified. They were buried together in a new cemetery built high above the town. Recovering the bodies took weeks and cleaning up debris took months. Five thousand homes had been destroyed, so many families lived in tents. During recovery and relief efforts the state of Pennsylvania put Johnstown under martial (military) law, since many of the towns leaders had perished in the flood. General Hastings took charge for several months, making sure relief supplies went to survivors who needed them and keeping the press from taking over the town.
The revolutions of the American Colonies, France and Latin America had a common thread in that they wanted free from rule by a corrupt government. The Colonies in America wanted free from under British rule but wanted to keep the laws and traditions they had acquired from England.
About 8.5 million Japanese civilians were displaced from their homes between 1943 and 1945 as a result of air raids on Japan by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) during World War II. ... After American bombers started to devastate entire cities in 1945, millions more civilians fled to the countryside.
