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    Washed Away: How the Great Flood of 1913, America's Most Widespread Natural Disaster, Terrorized a Nation and Changed It Forever
    Unavailable
    Washed Away: How the Great Flood of 1913, America's Most Widespread Natural Disaster, Terrorized a Nation and Changed It Forever
    Unavailable
    Washed Away: How the Great Flood of 1913, America's Most Widespread Natural Disaster, Terrorized a Nation and Changed It Forever
    Ebook514 pages8 hours

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

    By Geoff Williams

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    The true story of a catastrophic weather event that will “interest readers who enjoyed Erik Larson’s Isaac’s Storm” (Booklist).

    This is the incredible account of a flood of near-Biblical proportions in early twentieth-century America—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 nation’s most widespread flood ever—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 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, 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 succeeded—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 “weaves tragic and heroic stories of people in the various affected states into an almost hour-by-hour account of the deadly storm” (Booklist).
     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPegasus Books
    Release dateFeb 5, 2013
    ISBN9781453271636
    Unavailable
    Washed Away: How the Great Flood of 1913, America's Most Widespread Natural Disaster, Terrorized a Nation and Changed It Forever
    Author

    Geoff Williams

    Geoff Williams OAM, AM is a pollination ecologist, conservation biologist and entomologist with a PhD from the University of New South Wales, and a Research Associate of the Australian Museum. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia and appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in recognition of his contributions to science and biodiversity conservation. He is the author of The Invertebrate World of Australia’s Subtropical Rainforests (CSIRO Publishing, 2020) and The Flowering of Australia’s Rainforests: Pollination Ecology and Plant Evolution (CSIRO Publishing, 2021).

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    Reviews for Washed Away

    3.5/5

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    • 5/5
      This is a well-organized account that will be of interest to anyone with connections to the areas affected by the flood of 1913. The author has sought out hundreds of personal stories. Be warned that most of the stories involve someone being drowned! The photos are great!
    • 3/5
      Washed Away: How the Great Flood of 1913, America’s Most Widespread Disaster, Terrorized a Nation and Changed it Forever by Geoff Williams
      356 pages

      ★★★

      In 1913, tornadoes and rain would cause terrible flooding throughout Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and many other surrounding areas. When it was all said and done, over 700 people were dead, many injured and homeless. It would lead to new laws and safety measures at the time, still used today (some more successfully than others). This book is the story of those people that had to deal with the destruction that came through their lives – some would survive, others wouldn’t be so lucky.

      I’m sorta morbid. The more death and destruction, the more likely I am to want to read about it. Obviously I’m not alone or there wouldn’t be so many books of its kind. So where does this book land in all I have read? Middle ground. It was an interesting subject, one now forgotten in history but one that made a huge difference up to present time. It did seem to jump around quite a bit. He may mention someone and then get back to their story after dozens of other people and stories have been told. It had a tendency to be repetitive in parts. It bugged me that there was no bibliography. It is obvious he did a lot of research but the fact that except for a few mentions of sources in the writing and a small acknowledgement, there is no proof of this research and I felt like it deserved much more attention. I know I’m nitpicking. On the plus side, I did find the author’s style interesting. The breaking up of time, a step-by-step of events and the close-up of the people kept me reading. The author also has a humorous, sarcastic streak which I found here and there that amused me. Not bad but glad I picked it up from the library.
    • 4/5
      Great Flood of 1913"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 research for this book is extensive....many stories of survival and loss are quite interesting....and very difficult to picture.Reading got a little strained (tiring)here and there but I maintained my interest for these 2 reasons"Every major river east of the Mississippi rose.... Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania were the hardest-hit states.I gave it 3.5★.... and would commend the author on the amount of research that went into assembling the book.
    • 1/5
      Terribly written and in desperate need of a good, honest editor. Very little history and a lot of speculation about what the people were thinking, even about what they "may or may not have done", with rabbit trails about the romanticism of drowning and swimming requirements of American colleges in the early 1900s. Yes, seriously. I made it to page 41 before giving up.
    • 4/5
      First Line: On March 23, 1913, the United States of America was reminded that when it comes to nature, we're not really in charge.This is the often gripping story of how storms and floods of almost Biblical proportions first began with a series of tornadoes that killed 150 people in Omaha, Nebraska, and then continued on to ravage fourteen states-- and every river east of the Mississippi. The rain went on for days, and once started, the flooding seemed as though it would never stop. It was America's widest spread flood ever. More than 700 people died, hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings were destroyed, and millions were left homeless. This disaster proved that America had no real flood control, and the government set out to change that. Laws were passed, dams were built, and the techniques they used have been held up as a model for flood control around the world.The author grew up hearing stories about the flood in Ohio from family members, and once he became an adult, he decided to check into it a little bit. What he learned shocked him and formed the basis for this book. The sections describing the floods and devastation at times reach the quality of the best fiction: a swift, sure pace, and first person accounts that draw the reader right into the narrative. Only once did I feel that Williams stumbled, even though he was trying to prove a very important point. When writing about drowning victims, he refutes the idea so often found in literature that drowning is a poetic way to die. It is anything but poetic, and Williams rapidly proved his point, but he continued at such great length that it completely threw me out of the engrossing story he'd been telling.Complete with many illustrations, Washed Away tells of a critical time in American history and reminded me that so many things which we take for granted today have their origins in our country's reactions to some of the worst things Mother Nature can throw at us.