How the Great Flood of 1913, America's Most Widespread Natural Disaster, Terrorized a Nation and Changed It Forever
"The meticulously researched account covers dramatic rescues, sorrowful endings, dishonest scams and political machinations. Williams builds a convincing argument that we continue to ignore lessons concerning the treatment of our beleaguered planet." -- Minneapolis Star Tribune "Williams chronicles the devastation in a voice reminiscent of Mark Twain and James Thurber. Williams proves a marvelous storyteller; Thurberian wit and whimsy saturate the pages. Williams' crisp and colorful vernacular offers valuable insights on the causes of the Great Flood." -- The Cleveland Plain Dealer "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 or Simon Winchester's A Crack in the Edge of the World about the San Francisco earthquake of 1906." -- Booklist
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.