...Generations would pass before terms such as 1-percenter, superstorm and climate change entered the national vocabulary -- and the term "underwater" would itself enter the lexicon of mortgage finance.

But 125 years after the great Johnstown Flood of 1889, Pennsylvania's deadliest disaster continues to resonate in fields as diverse as ethics, water physics, legal theory, the growing economic divide and the increasingly fraught relationship between humans and their natural environment.

The disaster followed the catastrophic failure of the poorly maintained South Fork Dam at Lake Conemaugh, the exclusive resort of Pittsburgh's industrial elite -- including families whose names still adorn the Steel City's landmarks and skylines, such as Carnegie, Frick, Mellon, Phipps and Reed.