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dams. In 1971, Pittston was cited for over 5,000 safety violations at its mines nationally. Alvid Davis was working outside his home in the community of Stowe when he looked up and saw the flood waters coming, according to an Associated Press report of February 28, 1972. find dam #3 satisfactory. Set during the Polish-Soviet War of 19191920, Babels novel captured the indiscriminate violence and injustice of warfare. amzn_assoc_asins = "0393332217,0938985108,B01MXPYJBV,0802124658"; Feb 28, 1972. But the company challenged each of the violations and paid only $275 of the $1.3 million in fines originally proposed. WVPB News. In 1973, the West Virginia Legislature passed the Dam Control Act, regulating all dams in the state. My daughter said she had heard my wife praying when the waters hit the house, said Davis, later recounting his travail. If your house burned down, youve still got your neighbors. Jamie Goodman/Brian Sewell, Remembering Buffalo Creek, The Appalachian Voice, February 21, 2012. Although its velocity gradually decreased as it traveled down the valley, the event caused death and destruction as far as 15 miles downstream of the dams. February 26, 2022, marks the 50th anniversary of one of the most devastating mine disasters in U.S. history. But these werent the only investigations; there were also several others, including: one or more Congressional committees, the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Generated by Wordfence at Wed, 1 Mar 2023 10:03:54 GMT.Your computer's time: document.write(new Date().toUTCString());. The dams themselves were certainly not state-of-the-art construction. Total property damage was estimated at $50 million (about $340 million in 2022 dollars). K.T. Bridges were smashed to bits. Richard Martin's 2015 book, "Coal Wars". At approximately 8 a.m. on Feb. 26, 1972, a man-made coal slurry impoundment dam, which was operated by the Pittston Coal Company, burst following a prolonged period of heavy rainfall. He said he feels his experience with the flood is what led him to lead that lifestyle. amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon"; Coal disaster 50 years later: WVa creek teeming with fish By JOHN RABY The Associated Press, Updated February 26, 2022, 12:47 p.m. Jacob Turkale held a rainbow trout he caught Tuesday along. Liz Tackett, retired former director of the Buffalo Creek Memorial Library, opens up a memorial service for survivors of the Buffalo Creek Flood on Friday, Feb. 24. The New York Times ran an Associated Press wire story on the front page of its Sunday, February 27th, 1972 edition, above the fold, bearing the headline, 37 Killed as Flood Sweeps A Valley in West Virginia. The opening sentence of that story read: A huge, coal-slag heap serving as a dam burst under the pressure of three days of torrential rains early this morning, sending a wall of water through a narrow valley dotted with small impoverished mining towns. The Times own reporter, George Vecsey, based in Kentucky, managed to reach Man, West Virginia on February 27th, filing his story (above) which appeared in the next days edition. You may opt-out anytime by clicking "unsubscribe" from the newsletter or from your account. Arch Moore agreed to a $1 million settlement before leaving office in . Arnold and Porter gave Pittston a $32.5 million written settlement proposal. 2. Williams wasnt alone in pointing to the ravages of strip mining. Stern asked Judge Hall to help him get access to the West Virginia Ad Hoc Commission Rita Colistra, The Rumble and The Dark: Regional Newspaper Framing of the Buffalo Creek Mine Disaster of 1972, Journal of Appalachian Studies, Vol. When the deluge receded, he saw bodies along the long walk to check on relatives, images that have been seared into the veterans mind. September 2, 1972West Virginia Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry into the there wasnt any flood. Click the card to flip Definition 1 / 149 * the author, former civil rights attorney employed at Arnold and Porter (large DC firm) * lead attorney in Buffalo Creek case Click the card to flip Flashcards Learn Test Match Created by Mariam_Salman27 Terms in this set (149) Fuquay would also conduct an early field analysis of what happened there. Among those pressing for action in Washington was consumer advocate Ralph Nader, well known by then for taking on politicians and corporations. Committee in a lawsuit against Pittston. Some 208 of these coal combustion waste sites are known to have contaminated groundwater, wetlands, and/or rivers. from [any] overflow from the lake.. Disaster at Buffalo Creek. Home; Get your fix of JSTOR Dailys best stories in your inbox each Thursday. He relied on depositions and additional interviews he conducted to write Everything in Its Path: Destruction of Community in the Buffalo Creek Flood. Kanawha County Bar Association voted to investigate Arnold & Porters alleged Four years after the disaster, in 1976, about 100 families were still living in the government provided mobile homes. Click for copy. October 8, 1971Pittston promisedWVDNRto install an emergency Moore would prevail in the election, campaigning heavily in West Virginias coal mining regions, impugning Rockefellers position on strip mining. Wordfence is a security plugin installed on over 4 million WordPress sites. 20 years prior to the Buffalo Creek flood, a similar incident had occurred. If you think you have been blocked in error, contact the owner of this site for assistance. The floods aftermath was widespread property destruction and the deaths of 125 people three of which were babies who were never identified. 128-129. Robert Weedall, West Virginias climatologist, noted in later remarks that yes, Act of God is a legal term, but there were other perhaps more apt legal terms that might apply to what had happened in Buffalo Creek, such as involuntary manslaughter or criminal negligence. The record, however, would prove that acts of man had everything to do with what happened at Buffalo Creek. Many in the downstream communities were keenly aware of the unstable nature of these impoundments, and expressed their concern to government officials. In fact, there had already been signs of trouble at the dams, which should have raised alarms and efforts at corrective construction. 1929). I was terrified of water, Pierson said. The historic Buffalo Creek flood tore through a region often exploited by industryand stereotyped by outsiders. Then in December 2008 a second major impoundment breach occurred this time, a failure of a giant 84-acre coal ash impoundment at the Tennessee Valley Authoritys (TVA) Kingston Fossil Plant in eastern Tennessee (photo above). Associated Press, Pittstons Federal Flood Suit Settled Out of Court, Bluefield Daily Telegraph (Bluefield, WV), July 6, 1974, p. 1. Mine Safety and Health Administration) to the Buffalo Creek area a few days after the disaster. The Logan prosecutor said at the time that Pittstons failure to receive a state dam license was merely a misdemeanor and that a one-year statute of limitations for prosecutions had lapsed. Depta recalls the trailers brought in by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to set up temporary living for the newly homeless. This dam failure released 1.1 billion gallons of coal ash slurry into the Emory and Clinch rivers. I go to fire departments and teach about nuclear fallout. 1/2 (Spring/Fall 2010), pp. amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart"; The toxic coal slurry poured into Kentuckys Coldwater and Wolf creeks, then to the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River, traveling more than 70 miles downstream, and eventually reaching the Ohio River, with blackwater visible at Cincinnati. As if some foreign enemy had flown in and nuked the place. The Citizens report also noted that strip mining above the dam had likely contributed to its over-filling. Is the unique Appalachian dialect the preserved language of Elizabethan England? They are used to hard times. William Rhee, Associate Professor of Law, West Virginia University, The Buffalo Creek Timeline, WVU.edu, updated on December 30, 2015. This process was repeated when the third dam (Dam No. miners. The Senate subcommittee would later issue some three volumes of material and by June 1972 would call for new legislation to prevent disasters like Buffalo Creek, offering a Mined Area Protection Bill, a measure, however, that would not be adopted. On Feb. 26, 1972, at approximately 8 a.m., a coal slurry impoundment dam owned by Pittston Coal Company burst . For many, Eriksons book became a definitive take on Buffalo Creek, as well as Appalachian culture as a whole. One resident at the scene, later quoted in in Kai T. Eriksons book, Everything in Its Path, noted of the onrushing tide: This water, when it came down through here, it acted real funny. Gazette-Mail/L. WV. Jack Doyle, Buffalo Creek Disaster: 1972, It was a recipe for disaster as the trio of dams was inadequate to handle runoff from large rainstorms, like the one that dumped several inches of rain on Logan County by early Saturday morning, Feb. 26. 417-424, Appalachian Journal, Vol. 1966A United Kingdom coal-waste dump in South Aberfam, Wales similar By 1957, the Buffalo Mining Company, as part of its strip mining operations, began dumping gob mine waste consisting of mine dust, shale, clay, low-quality coal, and other impurities into the Middle Fork branch. The Buffalo Creek Disaster: An Effective Supplement to a Conventional Civil Procedure Course Lawrence M. Grosberg Gerald Stern's The Buffalo Creek Disaster 1 and the lawsuit which is the subject of his book provide an excellent vehicle to complement a conven-tionally taught civil procedure course. 1904The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad completed its Charleston, W.Va., ), 400 Still Missing in West Virginia Flood, February 28, 1972. A wave from the waste dam flooded and destroyed the Buffalo Creek community [2]. to let the plaintiffs see Pittstons insurance documents and refused to keep 1942Buchanan County coal refuse pile explosion covered the railroad tracks Associated Press (Man, WV. October 23, 1890: "Wreck on the C&O" November 4, 1985: Floods devastate West Virginia. Erikson, Disaster at Buffalo Creek. I didnt want to drown. The water is tranquil in the pools where the trout like to hide. More than 100 people died in southern West Virginia when a dam failed. February 5, 1968Buffalo Creek resident wrote the Governor of West Virginia He spoke with residents, including a woman who said she lost eighteen relatives in the flood. Governor Arch Moore accepted a $1 million settlement from the Pittston Coal Company related to the 1972 Buffalo Creek Flood. Another survivor and eye witness recounted what he saw to a Logan Banner reporter: It was throwing houses around like matchstems and it was picking up cars like they were eggshells, Two other witnesses reported to the Logan Banner that they saw bodies getting hung in trees The water was black and it was carrying homes and timber Another man added: I just didnt believe I would see that much water and houses floating down the creek. There was a gold trout out there I was trying to catch, he said. And that same year, 1967, the U.S. Department of the Interior had warned state officials that the Buffalo Creek dams and 29 others throughout West Virginia were unstable and dangerous. The Buffalo Creek Disaster, February 26, 1972 One of worst floods in US occurred here 26 February 1972, when Buffalo Mining Co. impoundment dam for mine waste broke, releasing over 130 million gallons of black waste water: killed 125; property losses over $50 million; and thousands left homeless. These cracks were a clear indication of the saturation and subsequent destabilization of the structure, but no evacuation order was issued. Loss of Communality at Buffalo Creek, American Journal of Psychiatry, March 1976, pp. JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students. Sunshine and clouds mixed. The goal of MSHAs impoundment program continues to help ensure that: Impoundments constructed by the coal industry are designed to accepted dam safety standards. The cause of the Buffalo Creek failure was analyzed, an inventory of coal waste impoundments was compiled, and emergency inspections were conducted to identify other potentially hazardous sites. amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual"; to a federal court which would require the court to allow a piercing of the Buffalo Mining Company's corporate vail Needed a way to circumvent the $110,000 max wrongful death settlement in West Virginia -$110,000 is the cap for compensatory damages -if it could be proven that Pittston's conduct was "willful, or reckless or wanton then the Looking back at the Buffalo Creek Disaster. A German immigrant from Munich, John Popp (1832-1922) arrived in the U.S. in 1851 and settled in Wheeling. Theres also the risk of environmental damage from coal ash, the toxic wastewater left over from burning coal at power plants. The tragedy resulted in a $13.5 million class action settlement, and led to the 1973 Dam Control Act. Steve Thompson Witnessed the Buffalo Creek Flood Disaster First Hand. In eastern Kentucky in 2000, the bottom of a coal impoundment ruptured into an abandoned underground mine, flooding two streams and poisoning a water supply. its motion to dismiss. Although influential, the book overlooks the impressive resiliency and advocacy demonstrated by many survivors within the community. The fact that the plaintiffs were involved in a lawsuit against Pittston instead of passively accepting their fate was alone evidence of their ability to cope, Ewen and Lewis write, essentially arguing that Everything in Its Path is myopic in its attention on the communitys destruction. The pool was within three feet of the crest of the dam, and ominous cracks appeared. (the diversity amount-in-controversy amount at the time). Im a bit of a prepper, Hall said, and that flood I think done it, because I dont never want to be caught again with nothing. I enjoyed it when I was small., He said the adults decided that if they got the kids involved they wouldnt be as apt to go out and start worrying about getting on drugs or drinking and stuff like that.. The people of Appalachia seem to be forever poised at some vague mid-point between ability and disability, is one such Erikson statement. July 1971Pittstons vice-president of industrial engineering and training 30, No. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. We have had a couple of conversations since he moved in and that is how I found out he was from Logan, more specifically, Man, West Virginia. In an out of court settlement, the survivors were awarded $13.5 million, $6 million of which was distributed on the basis of a point system as compensation for the psychological damages. 2 to handle excessive runoff. Most of Buffalo Creek was previously owned by the Popp family, who ran a dairy farm before converting to grain crops such as soybeans, wheat and corn. Arch Moore agreed to a $1,000,000 settlement just days. Approximately 550 homes were destroyed, and another 900-plus were damaged. Tom Nugent, Death at Buffalo Creek: The 1972 West Virginia Flood Disaster, New York: Norton, 1973. Davis managed to rescue two of his sons, and his neighbors helped pull his 17-year-old daughter from the waters two miles down the hollow. And then you could hear the roar of it and you could see it. If a person is so often treated as trash, they may come to believe they are nothing but trash. Youve still got but it was gone, just like being somewhere and a volcano went off and wiped out your entire village, and even after it was all over with, they went through there and tore out our little road and destroyed all of our little communities, and the people that wanted to couldnt even move back to where they used to live at., It hurts, Hall said. The water was there, and then it was gone., As the wave moved down the mountain valley it wiped out much of what stood in its path. And I aint never seen God up there driving no bulldozer dumping slate on that dam. Her remarks won applause from most everyone in the room. 2023 West Virginia University. One resident had even written to the governor a few years earlier saying if something wasnt done about the dams, were all going to be washed away., We saw the water lift up our house. Since our founding in 1986, we have established ourselves as the premier resource for information about OCD and related disorders, as well as the nexus of a broad international community of. Never. "Coal: A Human History", 2016 edition. But his pregnant wife couldnt get out; she was trapped in the house. State officials requested a few minor alterations to the impoundment. I found the use of . More than a dozen towns were inundated and 125 people lost their lives. Mimi Pickering, my wife, made two documentary films about the disaster. dvidovich@hdmediallc.com, House passes religious freedoms bill after attempts to amend fail, WV Senate passes bill aimed at strengthening flood resiliency, Blevins resigns as Man mayor; Fekete appointed, Cline's charges referred to Grand Jury; bond reduction request denied, Chapmanville girls beat Liberty Raleigh, Mingo Central to win sectional title, Dwight Williamson: Racism lived in Logan County in the 1950s, and still does, Amid heated exchange, Chapmanville council rescinds $2,000 sports donation, Townsend sworn in to Chapmanville Police Department, Dwight Williamson: Former baseball player from Holden barely remembered today, Two dead after head-on crash on Buffalo Creek, Beckett: City pursuing inspection process for residential electric hookups. Your e-mail address will be used to confirm your account. The state's investigation into the disaster is filled with controversy. In 2012, a section of embankment being worked on collapsed at a coal slurry pond in northern West Virginia. The state Legislature had sued Pittston for $100 million. Judge Hall suggests selecting 4-5 sample cases on the question of liability. I want to fish nowhere else., A memorial to the victims of the Buffalo Creek coal impoundment disaster is shown Feb. 22, 2022, in Kistler, W.Va. On Feb. 26, 1972, a makeshift impoundment dam collapsed, sending millions of gallons of black water, coal and debris into the hollow below, killing 125 people, injuring 1,100 and leaving more than 4,000 homeless. forbidden in December 1970. The Buffalo Creek Flood and Disaster: Official Report from the Governor's Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry. They also worried about the mining practice of dumping coal mining slag or gob coal mining waste into the dams. A U.S. Geological George Vecsey, Two Rival Inquiries Are Begun into Flood in West Virginia, New York Times, March 12, 1972, p. 70. And that same year, 1967, the U.S. Department of the Interior had warned state officials that the Buffalo Creek dams and 29 others throughout West Virginia were unstable and dangerous.[I]f you dont do some-thing, were all going to be washed away. If you forget it, you'll be able to recover it using your email address. Harveys home was spared, barely. Me driving a bus, I knew about 80% of these people, and every name that went by, I can visualize them at that time, Moore said. Congressman Ken Hechler (D-WV)), who also came to the area on Sunday, February 27th, told reporters that the U.S. Bureau of Mines and state agencies had failed to demonstrate sufficient concern for the protection of the safety of the people who work in the mines and live in the mining communities. Hechler also pointed to what he believed was a contributing cause of the flooding: As I looked through Buffalo Creek valley yesterday, it struck me again that the entire valley is honeycombed with strip mines and the waste from deep mines so that the soil can no longer hold the [rain] water. Hechler also slammed the coal industrys power in the area, saying, the people are prisoners of the coal industry And with some irony, he added, the only building left intact in one Buffalo community was the company store., On Monday, February 28th, U.S. September 30, 1870: Harpers Ferry flood. TVAs spill was from a coal ash impoundment, which is somewhat different than a mine-site slurry impoundment, as it deals with post-combustion, powerplant coal ash, which involves a different regulatory arena than mine-site or coal processing impoundments. by refuse-pile dams. He is forbidden from distributing the memorandum. 2 (Jan., 1978), pp. amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart"; Stern has a moment where he wishes the case could go to trial. Erikson, a Yale professor when he arrived in Buffalo Creek, is one such outsider, having no connection to the region until he was brought in as an expert witness. The Pittston Coal Co., meanwhile, continued extracting coal in the Buffalo Creek area through its subsidiary there. psychic injury while they were physically away from Buffalo Creek during the flood. The other, David Adkins Jr., he was the same age five he hadnt started school either, but every evening, he was out and back then, they put braces in a fence and hed sit right in that brace and hed watch that bus every evening like he was saying, Next year, Im going to ride that bus. He didnt make it. Many lived in temporary trailer-park style homes following the disaster some for years. Moore regarding their request that a coal miner be added to the commission, a separate Citizens Commission was formed to provide an independent review of the disaster. - $13 million - Initially asked for $32 million - 2016: would be $65,208,559 (without legal and contingency fees) The outcome for Arnold & Porter - $3 million in legal fees (1974) - 43,000 man-hours . damaged and destroyed bridges, roads, and schools for $50 million compensatory On February 26, 1972, tragedy struck a small mining community in the coalfields of southern West Virginia. When the water set it down again, it just flattened out on the ground. After last year, Pierson, who now lives in Scott Depot, made the drive home to Logan County once again to reminisce with other survivors. (AP Photo/John Raby). Jules Loh, Associated Press, Buffalo Creek Hollow: A Nice Place to Live Then The Flood, March 5, 1972. Crowd of onlookers in the distance surveys the enormous debris field jammed up against a downstream bridge following the Buffalo Creek coal flood. Human relationships in this community had been derived from traditional bonds of kinship and neighborliness. Chance of rain 100%. Kai Erikson's book, "Everything In Its Path: Destruc-tion of Community in The Buffalo Creek Flood". February 26, 2022, marks the 50th anniversary of one of the most devastating mine disasters in U.S. history. The company was operating eight mines in the vicinity and ran all the coal through the preparation plant above the dams. You build them up with a bunch of political propaganda.., he said, also suggesting that the coal operators money installed the politicians in Washington, and then, you dont care nothing about us., Not long after the dams had burst, and the flood waters had raged through the Buffalo Creek communities, Pittstons New York public relations office, attempting to absolve the company from legal responsibility, issued a news release stating that the flood was an act of God. The dam, said the Pittston officials, was simply incapable of holding the water God poured into it.. dumping coal refuse into the mouth of Middle Fork hollow. April 16, 1971WVDNR Inspector recommended an emergency spillway on Dam A close look at Buffalo Creek illuminates the regions ties to coal. Somewhere along there I lost that boy of mine. At the time, the EPA called it the worst environmental disaster in the southeast United States. The coal company called it an act of God (sound familiar?). Tim Hall, left, explains how the events of the Buffalo Creek Flood shaped his life during a memorial service at the Buffalo Creek Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 24. not in the Prince lawsuit filed in federal district court. Nothing is the same around this place. This is the name that will be displayed next to your photo for comments, blog posts, and more. The 2 held and halted the water. The Pittston Company: Company Profile & History, ReferenceForBusiness.com. Some residents in the area, especially those who lived in the town of Saunders, located in the valley directly below the dams, had worried for years about the dams strength. The Buffalo Creek that survives today is calm in places and flows briskly in others, its rapids gurgling. Wallace Adkins of Robinette, tried to escape the on-rushing wall of water by loading up his family car. BMCs vice survivor syndrome, what is known today as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Among officials and Senators shown are, from left: Dennis Gibson, Buffalo Mining Co.(22) Garth Fuguay (21, with pointer), Army Corps of Engineers; Sen. Harold Hughes (18); Sen. Jennings Randolph (17); Sen. Jacob Javits (16); Sen. Harrison Williams (15); Sen. Richard Scheiker (19), and Sen. Robert Stafford (20). Or something else altogether? They lost loved ones, their homes, their neighbors, their community. More than a dozen towns were inundated and 125 people lost their lives. No evidence of an act of God was found by the Commission. 344.754 S839. For outsiders, these stereotypes dehumanize the exploited individuals. In 1974, the 645 Buffalo Creek residents suing Pittston Coal settled for $13.5 million, which amounted to approximately $13,000 paid out to each plaintiff. The United States declined to sue Pittston for cleanup costs. two telephone books worth of victim statements. #3 in his inspection report. You will then receive an email that helps you regain access. From chaos to responsibility The litigation initiated by the 625 survivors of the Buffalo Creek flood who refused to settle with the coal company claims office was a landmark case. Pittston settled all property damage claims. of their damage claims. At the outset of the hearing, Fuquay was the first witness, and the subcommittee chairman, Senator Harrison Williams (D-NJ), submitted for inclusion in the hearing record, Fuquays 225-page report, titled An Engineering Survey of Representative Coal Mine Refuse Piles as Related to the Buffalo Creek, West Virginia, Disaster. That two-part report, focusing on the failed Buffalo Creek dams and a sampling of other dangerous coal refuse dams in the region, made headlines in a few places on May 30th, 1972, the day the Senate hearings began. But following a bitter labor strike in 1989, and the declining profitability of its minerals division throughout the 1990s, Pittston began to wind down its coal operations. For as it turns out, there are coal waste impoundments, and coal waste disposal methods, of many kinds. August 8, 1972Congress passed the National Dam Inspection Act. unstable and that the bank [was] subject to large wash-out on [the] north side George Vecsey, West Virginia Flood Toll At 60 With Hundreds Lost, New York Times, February 28, 1972. The plaintiffs settled out of court for $13.5 million in 1974, with each individual receiving an average of $13,000 after legal costs. And it also continued dumping its coal wastes in the area as well, absent the use of watery waste dams. Engineering, Not Rainfall, Given Blame, Logan Banner, March 9, 1972. In addition to the two West Virginia reports, there were also several others, including the U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing record already mentioned; a U.S. Geological Survey report; a U.S. Department of the Interior Report; and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report all of which, in one form or another, found fault with the design, integrity, and lack of oversight of the dams, and how regulators and the Pittston Coal Company failed to meet their responsibilities for public health and safety. They pointed to a 1966 U.S. Geological Survey report of 1966 that had found 60 such coal mine waste piles in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia, and that little had been done to correct or eliminate those hazards and additional ones since that report was made. We saw the water lift up our house, said Enda Baisden Short, recalling for The Herald Dispatch of Huntington, West Virginia that she and her husband had run from their home early that Saturday morning just prior to coal waste flood. protect miners and their families. Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles. By 1972, the third dam ranged from 45-to-60 feet in height, and the Middle Fork had become a series of black pools. found that the victims didn't experience the enthusiastic feelings because the disaster was so much greater, and . Arch Moore's emergency director asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to perform recovery work at state expense. Hall agreed and the documents examining the plaintiffs. Coal Co. v. De Wese, 30 "one acre of area covered by water to a depth of 300 feet", OR This work revealed the inadequacies that existed at that time in the safety of many of the dams constructed by the coal mining industry. 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