Washed Away: How the Great Flood of 1913, America's Most

Washed Away: How the Great Flood of 1913, America's Most Widespread Natural Disaster, Terrorized a Nation and Changed It Forever

The true story of a catastrophic weather event that will â€œinterest readers who enjoyed Erik Larsonâ€™s Isaacâ€™s Stormâ€ (Booklist).

This is the incredible account of a flood of near-Biblical proportions in early twentieth-century Americaâ€”its destruction, its heroes, its victims, and how it shaped natural-disaster policies in the United States for the next hundred years.

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 they tried to flee. It was the nationâ€™s most widespread flood everâ€”more than 700 people died, hundreds of thousands of houses 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 Vermontâ€”fourteen states in all, and every major and minor river east of the Mississippi.

In the aftermath, flaws in Americaâ€™s natural disaster response system were exposed, much as they would be nearly a century later in the wake of 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 succeededâ€”it is estimated that in the Miami Valley alone, nearly two thousand floods have been prevented, and the same methods have been used as a model for flood control nationwide and around the world.

This suspenseful historical tale of a dramatic yet little-remembered disaster â€œweaves tragic and heroic stories of people in the various affected states into an almost hour-by-hour account of the deadly stormâ€ (Booklist).
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Country	USA
Author	Geoff Williams
Binding	Kindle Edition
Edition	1
EISBN	9781453272701
Format	Kindle eBook
Label	Pegasus Books
Manufacturer	Pegasus Books
NumberOfPages	336
PublicationDate	2013-02-05
Publisher	Pegasus Books
ReleaseDate	2013-02-05
Studio	Pegasus Books

Washed Away: How the Great Flood of 1913, America's Most Widespread Natural Disaster, Terrorized a Nation and Changed It Forever

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