Washed away : how the Great Flood of 1913, America's most widespread natural disaster, terrorized a nation and changed it forever

Title:

Author:

Williams, Geoffrey, 1970-

ISBN:

9781605984049

Edition:

1st Pegasus Books cloth ed.

Publication Information:

New York : Pegasus Books, c2013.

Physical Description:

xi, 356 p., [16] p. of plates : ill. ; 24 cm.

Contents:

Sunday, March 23, 1913. Heading for the cellar. -- Monday, March 24, 1913. The first flood deaths. -- Tuesday, March 25, 1913. Some of the people in the way ; The long rain ; A time to run ; Everyone on their own ; That old college try ; From bad to worse ; Desperation ; Heartbreak. -- Wednesday, March 26, 1913. Fighting back ; Waterworld ; Greed ; Children in harm's way ; Jittery nerves. -- Thursday, March 27, 1913. Another long night ; Light at the end. -- Friday, March 28, 1913. Water retreating. -- Saturday, March 29, 1913. Cleaning up. -- The Days After the Flood. Remember the promises in the attic.

Subject Term:

Floods -- United States -- History.

Floods -- Ohio River Valley -- History.

Flood damage -- United States -- History.

Flood damage -- Ohio River Valley -- History.

Natural disasters -- United States.

Summary:

In this book the author tells the story of a flood of near biblical proportions; its destruction, its heroes and victims, and how it shaped America's natural disaster policies for the next century. Fourteen states in all were hit, along with every major and minor river east of the Mississippi. The storm began March 23, 1913, with a series of tornadoes that killed 150 people and injured 400. Then the freezing rains started and the flooding began. It continued for days. Some people drowned in their attics, others on the roads when the tried to flee. It was the nation's most widespread flood ever, more than 700 people died, hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings were destroyed, and millions were left homeless. The destruction extended far beyond the Ohio valley to Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, New York, New Jersey, and Vermont. In the aftermath, flaws in America's natural disaster response systems were exposed, echoing today's outrage over Hurricane Katrina. People demanded change. Laws were passed, and dams were built. Teams of experts vowed to develop flood control techniques for the region and stop flooding for good. So far those efforts have succeeded. It is estimated that in the Miami (Ohio) Valley alone, nearly 2,000 floods have been prevented, and the same methods have been used as a model for flood control nationwide and around the world.

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Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake)	363.3493 WIL	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Park Grove Library (Cottage Grove)	363.3493 WIL	Searching... Unknown
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)	363.3493 WIL	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

The incredible story of a flood of near-biblical proportions-its destruction, its heroes and victims, and how it shaped America's natural-disaster policies for the next century.

The storm began March 23, 1913, with a series of tornadoes that killed 150 people and injured 400. Then the freezing rains started and the flooding began. It continued for days. Some people drowned in their attics, others on the roads when the tried to flee. It was the nation's most widespread flood ever--more than 700 people died, hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings were destroyed, and millions were left homeless. The destruction extended far beyond the Ohio valley to Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, New York, New Jersey, and Vermont. Fourteen states in all, and every major and minor river east of the Mississippi.

In the aftermath, flaws in America's natural disaster response system were exposed, echoing today's outrage over Katrina. People demanded change. Laws were passed, and dams were built. Teams of experts vowed to develop flood control techniques for the region and stop flooding for good. So far those efforts have succeeded. It is estimated that in the Miami Valley alone, nearly 2,000 floods have been prevented, and the same methods have been used as a model for flood control nationwide and around the world.

Author Notes

Geoff Williams is the author of C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America . For most of his life, Williams has lived less than an hour away from the Great Flood's epicenter in Dayton, Ohio.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

In his attempt to humanize the Great Flood of 1913, the natural disaster that devastated hundreds of towns in more than a dozen states and claimed over 700 lives, Williams (C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race) often drifts off course. His narrative, which spans just six spring days, details the myriad forms of destruction visited upon the land by tornadoes, torrential rains, and subsequent floods, and he frequently pauses to flesh out backstories and grisly fates. But his digressions, like the deluge, often go too far afield and oversaturate the tale; Civil War soldiers wander in, Mark Twain makes an appearance, and a veritable ark of circus animals fight to survive. Williams's style ranges from formal to chatty, and his interweaving of pithy commentary and personal speculation makes it occasionally difficult to parse extensive research and firsthand accounts from Williams's narrative embellishments. There's plenty of fascinating ephemera, but Williams's flood suffers from something folks struggling to stay afloat in 1913 would've understood all too well: too much of a good thing. 16 pages of photos. Agent: Laurie Abkemeier, DeFiore and Company. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

Deeply researched, personal accounts of the Midwestern natural disaster whose ramifications can be felt today. Journalist Williams (C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America, 2007) offers an eerily prescient work that comes in the wake of another storm of the century, Hurricane Sandy. In mid-March 1913, a series of tornadoes accompanied by a deluge of rain on saturated, thawing ground caused inordinate damage to a swath of Ohio and Indiana, impacting both neighboring states and those as far away as Vermont and New Jersey and leaving approximately 1,000 dead and untold damage to the heartland. Williams has delved into the archives and extracted the stories of survivors and many who perished, tragedies witnessed by many and recorded in newspapers, books and memories passed down. The beginnings could be felt on March 23, in Omaha, Neb., when a twister ripped through town and killed 140 people and destroyed thousands of homes; other tornadoes wreaked havoc from Chicago to Terre Haute, followed by a downpour that swelled the rivers, coursing rapidly through towns. Williams pummels readers with countless anecdotes and pursues the fates of such characters as the Red Cross' national director Ernest P. Bicknell, who scrambled in the field to lend aid, or the young residents of the Allen County Orphans' Home in Fort Wayne, Ind. The author also looks at the lessons taken from the aftermath, such as the work of engineer Arthur E. Morgan, who implemented a revolutionary flood-control system for the region. A well-honed chronicle of a significant national disaster, especially timely following the destruction of Sandy.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

Of the major natural catastrophes of the early twentieth century, the Great Flood of 1913 is one of the least remembered. Over several days in March of that year, heavy rains with fierce winds and tornadoes caused severe flooding in 14 states. Before the storm abated, rain turned to snow. Every major river east of the Mississippi rose, many bridges washed away, and fallen telegraph and telephone lines isolated towns and cities in need of outside help. Hundreds of people died between Nebraska and Vermont from drowning, fires, freezing temperatures, accidents, and suicide. Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania were the hardest-hit states. Williams weaves tragic and heroic stories of people in the various affected states into an almost hour-by-hour account of the deadly storm. This quick-reading history published for the storm's centennial should interest readers who enjoyed Erik Larson's Isaac's Storm (1999), about the Galveston hurricane of 1900, or Simon Winchester's A Crack in the Edge of the World (2005), about the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.--Roche, Rick Copyright 2010 Booklist

Author's Note	p. vii
Sunday, March 23, 1913	p. 1
Chapter 1 Heading for the Cellar	p. 3
Monday, March 24, 1913	p. 19
Chapter 2 The First Flood Deaths	p. 21
Tuesday, March 25, 1913	p. 35
Chapter 3 Some of the People in the Way	p. 37
Chapter 4 The Long Rain	p. 54
Chapter 5 A Time to Run	p. 82
Chapter 6 Everyone on Their Own	p. 108
Chapter 7 That Old College Try	p. 123
Chapter 8 From Bad to Worse	p. 137
Chapter 9 Desperation	p. 150
Chapter 10 Heartbreak	p. 165
Wednesday, March 26, 1913	p. 177
Chapter 11 Fighting Back	p. 179
Chapter 12 Waterworld	p. 191
Chapter 13 Greed	p. 210
Chapter 14 Children in Harm's Way	p. 220
Chapter 15 Jittery Nerves	p. 240
Thursday, March 27, 1913	p. 251
Chapter 16 Another Long Night	p. 253
Chapter 17 Light at the End	p. 263
Friday, March 28, 1913	p. 279
Chapter 18 Water Retreating	p. 281
Saturday, March 29, 1913	p. 289
Chapter 19 Cleaning Up	p. 291
Epilogue: The Days After the Flood	p. 311
Chapter 20 Remember the Promises in the Attic	p. 313
Notes and Research and Acknowledgments	p. 343
Index	p. 349

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

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