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    Ruthless Tide: The Heroes and Villains of the Johnstown Flood, America's Astonishing Gilded Age Disaster
    Unavailable
    Ruthless Tide: The Heroes and Villains of the Johnstown Flood, America's Astonishing Gilded Age Disaster
    Unavailable
    Ruthless Tide: The Heroes and Villains of the Johnstown Flood, America's Astonishing Gilded Age Disaster
    Ebook349 pages6 hours

    Ruthless Tide: The Heroes and Villains of the Johnstown Flood, America's Astonishing Gilded Age Disaster

    By Al Roker

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    “Reads like a nail-biting thriller.” — Library Journal, starred review

    A gripping new history celebrating the remarkable heroes of the Johnstown Flood—the deadliest flood in U.S. history—from NBC host and legendary weather authority Al Roker

    Central Pennsylvania, May 31, 1889: After a deluge of rain—nearly a foot in less than twenty-four hours—swelled the Little Conemaugh River, panicked engineers watched helplessly as swiftly rising waters threatened to breach the South Fork dam, built to create a private lake for a fishing and hunting club that counted among its members Andrew Mellon, Henry Clay Frick, and Andrew Carnegie. Though the engineers telegraphed neighboring towns on this last morning in May warning of the impending danger, residents—factory workers and their families—remained in their homes, having grown used to false alarms.

    At 3:10 P.M., the dam gave way, releasing 20 million tons of water. Gathering speed as it flowed southwest, the deluge wiped out nearly everything in its path and picked up debris—trees, houses, animals—before reaching Johnstown, a vibrant steel town fourteen miles downstream. Traveling 40 miles an hour, with swells as high as 60 feet, the deadly floodwaters razed the mill town—home to 20,000 people—in minutes. The Great Flood, as it would come to be called, remains the deadliest in US history, killing more than 2,200 people and causing $17 million in damage.

    In Ruthless Tide, Al Roker follows an unforgettable cast of characters whose fates converged because of that tragic day, including John Parke, the engineer whose heroic efforts failed to save the dam; the robber barons whose fancy sport fishing resort was responsible for modifications that weakened the dam; and Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross, who spent five months in Johnstown leading one of the first organized disaster relief efforts in the United States. Weaving together their stories and those of many ordinary citizens whose lives were forever altered by the event, Ruthless Tide is testament to the power of the human spirit in times of tragedy and also a timely warning about the dangers of greed, inequality, neglected infrastructure, and the ferocious, uncontrollable power of nature.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMay 22, 2018
    ISBN9780062445520
    Author

    Al Roker

    Al Roker is cohost of NBC’s Today. He has received thirteen Emmy Awards, ten for his work on Today. He is the author of The Storm of the Century, an acclaimed history of the 1900 Galveston hurricane. He lives in Manhattan with his wife, ABC News and 20/20 correspondent Deborah Roberts, and has two daughters and a son.

    Read more from Al Roker

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    Reviews for Ruthless Tide

    4.5/5

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    • 5/5
      Written by NBC Weatherman, Al Roker, this book is an account of the event that took place on May 31, 1889 when the dam creating the lake at the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club about five hundred feet above and miles away from Johnstown, PA broke causing the destruction of the industrial city of Johnstown. The club was a secret subscription club owned by rich businessmen from Pittsburgh, PA. The disaster is usually remembered as The Johnstown Flood. The club and it's members were never held accountalble for the death and destruction caused by the faulty construction of the dam. There are many similarities between this story and some of the environmental issues we still face today. Then book reads like a novel, with many first person accounts.
    • 4/5
      I listened to this as an audiobook and while it was interesting, some of the discs in the set I borrowed skipped frequently. I grew up hearing about the Johnstown Flood, but for some reason, I never registered what year it took place--so I was surprised that it was in 1889--for some reason I thought it has been in the first few decades of the 1900s. I did learn more of the history surrounding the flood than I remembered from other accounts I'd heard or read. That may not be surprising as I've found myself more interested in history now than I was during my schooling. Since Hurricane Katrina, I've wondered why people would want to place a city in an area that could flood if levees or dams break. Johnstown was in a similar position, though I don't think it was in such a precarious position when it was first settled. It seems that the Industrial Age waste dumping (pre-regulations) and the rich men's desire to make the area a resort destination complete with stocked fishing lake created by a dam, changed the topography of the area and made it more likely for flooding to occur (due to river narrowing) and when the dam failed and released all the water that had been pent up for the lake into the already flooding river--well . . . you have The Johnstown Flood.