A town of about 30,000 residents in southwest Pennsylvania 90 minutes east of
Pittsburgh. Its claim to fame is the Johnstown Flood of 1889, in which more than 2,200 died--the deadliest disaster in the U.S. until 9/11. The
people are very nice in Johnstown, PA, but the town is extraordinarily religious, maybe because there is not much to do other than go to church, bowling, or to a dive
bar. Newcomers
may find it difficult to
break into the
well established social groups, since most of the residents have known each other since childhood. It has quite a number of large cemeteries. The population is mostly white. There are very, very few sidewalks and limited public transportation in this very hilly town. Unemployment is a serious problem here and the average wage is almost unlivably low, but housing costs are low, too. The main sources of employment are health care, defense, telemarketing, and retail.