The Disaster of Abafan

By 1966 there were seven spoil heaps surrounding Abafan village, five of which towered above the village itself. October of 1966 saw 6.5 inches of rainfall in Abafan in just a few days. Then, on the morning of October 21st, workers at the Abafan coal mine noticed that tip 7 had started to shift. Workers reported this to the tip supervisor, but instead of taking urgently needed action, the supervisor simply canceled the remaining day's work and declared they'd wait until the following week to decide on a new place to tip the soil. The wave first crashed into two farmhouses that sat just at the base of the spoil heap, instantly killing its occupants