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

Written by Al Roker

Narrated by Mirron Willis

A gripping narrative history of the 1889 Johnstown Flood—the deadliest flood in US history—from New York Times bestselling author, NBC Host, and legendary weather authority Al Roker.

May 1889: After a deluge of rainfall—nearly a foot in less than twenty-four hours—swelled the Little Conemaugh River, panicked engineers watched helplessly as swiftly rising waters threatened to breach the South Fork Dam in central Pennsylvania. Though they telegraphed neighboring towns on this last morning in May, warning of the impending danger, residents, used to false alarms, remained in their homes.

At 3:10 P.M., the dam gave way, releasing twenty million tons of water. Gathering speed as it flowed southwest, the deluge wiped out entire towns in its path and picked up debris—trees, houses, animals—before reaching Johnstown, fourteen miles downstream. Traveling forty miles an hour, with swells as high as sixty feet, the deadly floodwaters razed the mill town—home to 20,000 people—in minutes. The Great Flood, as it would come to be called, remains the deadliest in US history, killing more than 2,200 people and causing seventeen million dollars in damage.

Al Roker tells the riveting story of this tragedy, which remains one of the worst weather-related disasters in American history. Ruthless Tide follows a compelling cast of characters whose fates converged because of that tragic day, including John Parke, the engineer whose heroic efforts failed to save the dam; Henry Clay Frick, the robber baron whose fancy sport fishing resort was responsible for modifications that weakened the structure; and Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross, who spent five months in Johnstown leading one of the first organized disaster relief efforts. Weaving together their stories and those of many ordinary citizens whose lives were forever altered by the event, Roker creates a classic account of our natural world at its most terrifying.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: May 22, 2018
• ISBN: 9780062682215

Al Roker

Al Roker is the popular weatherman and cohost of NBC’s Today. With fourteen Emmy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award, and over forty years on air, he’s one of America’s most trusted morning show anchors. As CEO of Al Roker Entertainment, he produces award-winning content for network, cable, digital, and streaming channels. Through his company WeatherHunters, Inc., Al created the PBS Kids animated STEM series Weather Hunters, which won the ALSC Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media Award. A bestselling author and media personality, Al has also given a TED Talk and written over a dozen books, from cookbooks to essay collections to children’s books. He lives in New York City with his wife, ABC News correspondent Deborah Roberts, with whom he shares three adult children and granddaughter, Sky. Visit him on X and Instagram @AlRoker or on Facebook.

[mrdickie · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Written by NBC Weatherman, Al Roker, this book is an account of the event that took place on May 31, 1889 when the dam creating the lake at the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club about five hundred feet above and miles away from Johnstown, PA broke causing the destruction of the industrial city of Johnstown. The club was a secret subscription club owned by rich businessmen from Pittsburgh, PA. The disaster is usually remembered as The Johnstown Flood. The club and it's members were never held accountalble for the death and destruction caused by the faulty construction of the dam. There are many similarities between this story and some of the environmental issues we still face today. Then book reads like a novel, with many first person accounts.

[jenniferrobb · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I listened to this as an audiobook and while it was interesting, some of the discs in the set I borrowed skipped frequently. I grew up hearing about the Johnstown Flood, but for some reason, I never registered what year it took place--so I was surprised that it was in 1889--for some reason I thought it has been in the first few decades of the 1900s. I did learn more of the history surrounding the flood than I remembered from other accounts I'd heard or read. That may not be surprising as I've found myself more interested in history now than I was during my schooling.

Since Hurricane Katrina, I've wondered why people would want to place a city in an area that could flood if levees or dams break. Johnstown was in a similar position, though I don't think it was in such a precarious position when it was first settled. It seems that the Industrial Age waste dumping (pre-regulations) and the rich men's desire to make the area a resort destination complete with stocked fishing lake created by a dam, changed the topography of the area and made it more likely for flooding to occur (due to river narrowing) and when the dam failed and released all the water that had been pent up for the lake into the already flooding river--well . . . you have The Johnstown Flood.