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

Al Roker

may 2018 · HarperCollins

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“The Today show co-host and weatherman writes a narrative history of the 1889 Johnstown flood, the deadliest in American history.” —New York Times Book Review, “New & Noteworthy”

Central Pennsylvania, May 31, 1889: After a deluge of rain—nearly a foot in less than twenty-four hours—swelled the Little Conemaugh River, 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 to warn of impending danger, residents remained in their homes, having grown used to false alarms.

At 3:10 P.M., the dam gave way, releasing twenty million tons of water and wiping out nearly everything in its path before reaching Johnstown, a vibrant steel town fourteen miles downstream. Traveling forty miles an hour, with swells as high as 60 feet, the deadly floodwaters razed the mill town—home to 20,000 people—in minutes.

In Ruthless Tide, Al Roker follows an unforgettable cast of characters, 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 led one of the first organized disaster relief efforts in the U.S. Weaving together their stories and those of many ordinary citizens whose lives were forever altered, Ruthless Tide is testament to the power of the human spirit.

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

“Both a good yarn and a morality tale.” —Publishers Weekly

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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.