Aberfan 50th anniversary: full horror of disaster which left village in mourning for lost generation

The Daily Mirror ^ | October 21, 2016 | KIRSTIE MCCRUM , STEPHEN JONES

[dfwgator]

The whole nation joined a tiny Welsh village for a minute's silence - to remember the lives of the 144 people who died when a rock slide hit Pantglas Junior School

For an entire generation, the word Aberfan instantly evokes heartbreaking memories of one of the worst disasters in British history.

The small Welsh village will on Friday mark the tragic events of 50 years ago which wiped out a generation of children in a matter of minutes.

[dfwgator]

Truly one of the saddest, and one of the most avoidable tragedies I've ever heard of.

[IronJack]

I remember reading about this years ago. Truly a horror of nightmare proportions.

[ArtDodger]

Not to take away from the remembrance of this serious tragedy but the editors really need to do their job better at The Mirror. The caption of the 2 girls praying say they are preying...
Unless this is some sort of British English like grey/gray.

[ArtDodger]

Ha! Did it myself! says, not say! But I’m not in the business.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

There were once spoil piles in central Illinois and southern Iowa stacked like grey/black and sometime red shale from underground coal mines.
Since the late 60s, the shale was harvested and spread on county roads. Appanoose County, Iowa was one of a handful of counties where it was common to see cars smeared with the reddish mud from these roads.

[PghBaldy]

British Pathe newsreel (1966) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Nr-6uxM7y8

[texas booster]

In 1966, the Aberfan Disaster Memorial Fund (ADMF) received 90,000 contributions which reached a total of £1,606,929. The remaining tips were only eventually made safe after a lengthy fight from Aberfan residents, resisted by the NCB and Labour Government. Clearing was paid for by a government grant and forced contribution of £150,000 taken from the charity fund. In 1997 the Labour Government paid back the £150,000 to the ADMF and in 2007 the Welsh Assembly donated £1.5 million to ADMF as recompense for the money wrongly taken.

So not much has changed in the intervening years regarding the Labour Party.

[PAR35]

Truly one of the saddest, and one of the most avoidable tragedies I've ever heard of.

New London school explosion. More than twice as many dead.

[Gay State Conservative]

Heard it mentioned during Prime Minister's Question Time the other day and then found a video on youtube.Yet another reminder of the suffering of coal miners and coal mining communities.