The Tragedy of Aberfan - 40 Years On

This weekend is the 40th anniversary of an event that still, even now, moves me to tears - the Aberfan disaster. In 1966 a slag heap on a mountainside behind a school in the Welsh mining village of Aberfan suffered a catastrophic failure. 144 people died. 114 of them were children. Here's the link to the BBC page on it.

news.bbc.co.uk...

This was undoubtedly a terrible tragedy, but, with the greatest respect, I can't see why this has been posted here. What relevance does it have to this board?

Forgive me if I have missed the point.

40 years on goodness, i remember my dad telling me about this,

theres been alot of talk about them not getting the money they where ment to,

so thats something i hope is brought to light this memorial,

I think that it's a very relevant topic - the disaster was caused by incompetance on a massive scale and was followed up by the National Coal Board lying through its teeth. The tip should never have been placed where it was - over a natural spring that allowed the water to build up within it and destabilise it. The NCB's declaration - by it's chairman no less, who should have been prosecuted for perjury! - that it didn't know about the spring was dead wrong. The NCB's attempted coverup was exposed by the official enquiry, which ripped into it and exposed its failings. I think that the story of how badly the NCB screwed up and tried to hide it deserves mention.
Asala - the money issue was a disgrace as well. A total of £1.5m came in from all over the world for the village, which in 1966 terms was a huge amount. However, the NCB refused to pay for the removal of the tips hanging over Aberfan, and £150,000 had to be used from the trust fund to finance the work. That was hugely controversial and the NCB's public image never really recovered from it. The money was finally paid back in 1997 when the Blair government came in - but the interest wasn't included. It would have been £1.5m by 1997.

This truly was a terrible tragedy.

Some members of my family were living in Cardiff the capital of Wales at the time. People from all over South Wales went there to try and help, setting up soup kitchens for the disaster relief workers and such like.

For nearly 2 days grown hard men who were tough miners were desperately clawing at the mud with their hands, as the fear of hitting a child’s body with a shovel or anything mechanical through the soft and wet coal dust, whilst having nervous breakdowns as they pulled dead child after dead child out of the school.

The village never has recovered, as well as the snub by the government and lack of financial aid, a Whole generation was wiped out, every house in the village lost a son, daughter or very close relative.

Of interest in this disaster there was definite Precognition, some children refused to go to school that day, and one child drew pictures of the disaster a week before it happened and refused to go. Another child who died in the disaster also dreamt about it as told by her mother:

In early October 1966, a ten-year-old Welsh schoolgirl named Eryl Mai Jones had something important to tell her mother. "Mummy," she said, "I'm not afraid to die." "You're too young to be talking about dying," her mother said. "Do you want a lollipop?"

On October 20, Eryl Mai woke up after having a memorable dream.” Mummy, let me tell you about my dream last night," she said. "Darling, I've no time now. Tell me again later." "No, Mummy, you must listen," she said. "I dreamt I went to school and there was no school there. Something black had come down all over it.

Her mother thought nothing more about the dream. After all, they lived in Aberfan, Wales, a poor coal-mining town. Perched high on a hill overlooking Aberfan was a coal tip, where waste from the mining process was dumped. The Aberfan coal tip caused many residents of the town to worry for their safety. So when Eryl Mai's mother heard her dream, she may have concluded that her fear of the ever-present coal tip had provoked it.

Eryl Mai went off to Pantglas Junior School that day as usual. Nothing unusual happened. The next day, Friday, October 21, she did the same. But at 9:15 that morning, the coal tip gave way, sending tons of coal sludge, water, and boulders to the village below. The avalanche mowed down everything in its path, including stone houses and trees, and swept toward the Pantglas School, where it crushed the back of the school.

In all, 144 people were killed, most of them children at the school. Eryl Mai Jones was one of the victims.

Source

Therefore I conclude that this old tragedy is very relevant to ATSNN it shows big business in league with the government putting profits above children’s lives, and in addition it shows many cases of paranormal activity.

Very tragic my thoughts go out to those who still suffer today from the loss, especially with the anniversary making it so raw.

Love and Light to all in that valley.

Elf

I agree Elf. My father was born in a small Welsh mining village just up the valleys from Aberfan, and he grew up in the shadow of the slag heaps. My mother grew up in Neath and she remembers them clearly - and hated them. Treeless slopes everywhere and streams with filthy black water.
It struck a terrible chord with everyone in South Wales because they all knew that it could have happened to their town.
The NCB was guilty as hell for negligence - hell it was guilty of manslaughter! - but it wasn't fined a bloody penny.
I am het up now so I shall go away and have a beer to calm down.