“‘People were poor, very poor by later standards,’ one man said, ‘but they didn’t know it.’ And there was an energy, a vitality to life that they would miss in later years.”

In the first chapter, the author includes many details that give the reader a sense of what kind of town Johnstown was. The town was poor but not desolate. While the townsfolk may have wanted for many things, the town was alive and well, bustling, and ready for a new age of industrial progress.

“The country seemed hell-bent for a glorious new age, and Johnstown, clearly, was right up there booming along with the best of them.”

In the late 19th century, the industrial revolution was in full swing, and towns where steel production reigned flourished almost without exception. Johnstown had proved to be a reliable steel town where there was always work. It may not have compared to the biggest and best steel towns (Pittsburgh, for example), but it had a bright future that would ultimately be wiped out and set back quite a bit in the aftermath of the disaster.

“When the downpour began, George and Mathilde did not think much of it, except that there would almost certainly be high water in the morning. But the thought bothered them very little, except for the inconveniences there might be. They listened to the rain drum on the roof and were glad to be inside.”

Noting the general reaction to the storm the evening before the deluge is helpful to understanding how the hours immediately preceding the disaster were perceived. The opinions of various townsfolk reveal the prevailing view that the night’s rain was not unusual. While the night would take a turn for the worse, rain to the point of flooding was nothing new in these parts of the country.