Full disclosure: I’ve always been fascinated by the history of the Johnstown Flood. When I was little, my family lived for two years in Altoona, Pennsylvania, less than an hour’s drive from Johnstown. I’ve long counted Kathleen Cambor’s 2001 fictional depiction of the flood, IN SUNLIGHT, IN A BEAUTIFUL GARDEN, among my favorite novels. So I was probably predisposed to be captivated by Al Roker’s new nonfiction account of the 1889 flood, RUTHLESS TIDE.

And, in fact, I was swept away (pun fully intended) by the scope of his research and, most strikingly, the power of his storytelling. Roker, probably best known to many as the beloved weatherman on NBC’s “Today” show, is also the author of THE STORM OF THE CENTURY, a vivid account of the 1900 Galveston hurricane. Readers who enjoyed that book will not be surprised by Roker’s approach here, as he again both places the Johnstown Flood within its social, historical and economic context, and focuses on the stories of individuals’ lives before, during and after the devastating flood. Both readers already familiar with the broad outlines of the disaster and those for whom the story is a new one will find much to consider here.

Roker firmly places the Johnstown Flood not only along the banks of the Conemaugh River in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Mountains, but also at the confluence of industrialism, monopolistic capitalism, and burgeoning inequality between those who labored to power the American industrial machine and those who profited off their backs.

"Whether readers are fascinated by extreme weather events and natural disasters, or simply enjoy reading vividly told accounts of key historical events, RUTHLESS TIDE offers a stirring story of an event with lasting repercussions."

The villains of the story (though they’re not all painted with the same broad brush) are Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and their wealthy friends, who, in search of a scene of moneyed leisure like those in the Adirondacks or White Mountains, dam off the Conemaugh River to create a lake on which they can devote themselves to sport fishing (the geology of the Alleghenies, Roker explains, does not lend itself to the formation of natural lakes). Like many other decisions of the time, the infrastructure project was poorly thought through, designed to enhance the lives of its wealthy investors at the lowest possible cost --- and without any thought given to the safety of the tens of thousands of people living in the river valley far below the new South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club.

The heroes, on the other hand, are the dozens of ordinary people whose stories Roker tells, or at least touches on. He acknowledges that these stories, simply by virtue of surviving in the historical record, bespeak a certain kind of privilege; certainly many stories of the poor, injured or illiterate have been lost to history. But the stories of bravery and resilience are remarkable, even if they can’t include every single stratum of Johnstown society.

Roker’s account dramatizes --- both literally and metaphorically --- the ways in which the Johnstown Flood came to epitomize the toll industrialization was taking on ordinary people’s lives. As the water came sweeping down the mountain after the dam was breached, it picked up freight cars, factories, even yards of barbed wire --- all the apparatus of industrialization came sweeping down that river valley.

Perhaps most enlightening to 21st-century readers is the book’s final consideration of what happened after the flood, the larger changes wrought both in individuals and in society. Roker outlines how the lack of legal recourse for the flood’s victims led to much-needed revisions to liability law. He also illustrates how the flood catapulted the American Red Cross into a vital organization on the national level, and traces how the flood served as a catalyst to change one privileged man from a dedicated capitalist into a true progressive, pioneering ideas that still can be seen in municipal government today.

Whether readers are fascinated by extreme weather events and natural disasters, or simply enjoy reading vividly told accounts of key historical events, RUTHLESS TIDE offers a stirring story of an event with lasting repercussions.