50 years ago in a couple of days
fuckin grim that
Someone I know lived in the the next valley and she has a clear childhood memory of her dad and her uncle grabbing shovels and rushing off to help dig. Afterwards neither of them ever spoke of what they saw to her or the rest of the family.
I remember we had a collection at school for the disaster fund. It was a tragic enough event under any circumstances but made worse when it became known that there had previously been a number of smaller mud-slides from local tips. Apparently concerns had also been raised in years prior to the disaster about the siting of local tips on top of known underground springs which could destabilise the tips after very heavy rainfall, which is exactly what happened.
nobody from the coal board had any kind of punishment for it either
Apparently families at the time requested it be removed as due to other similar incidents having happened before but no one was effected.
Whole thing so reflects the way large organisations, ones in authority patronised, patted you on the head dismissing you as a non person.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/aberfan-was-a-man-made-disaster-50-years-on-we-must-remember-thi/ (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/aberfan-was-a-man-made-disaster-50-years-on-we-must-remember-thi/)
Absolutely awful