The Johnstown Flood

McCullough's The Johnstown Flood is written as a disaster novel. After giving a brief background of the history of the city and dam, it quickly moves to the actual dam breach and flood. The narrative relies heavily on the adventurous narratives of the survivors. Some people survived by riding a roof like a surf board, while others just happened to be in a location that the flood avoided.

The last third of the book covers the aftermath of the flood, along with the eventual lives of some of the participants.

The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club is given some of the blame for the flood. This millionaire's club had taken position of the dam and lake. They had made "improvements" to the dam, but without expert engineering experience. They also had fish gates shut to preserve fish (but also contribute to flooding.) Everyone in the city, however, assumed that experts were managing it, and there was nothing to worry about. The final trigger for the flood, however, was the torrential rainpoor that occurred easily breached the dam to create the huge flood.

I would have liked to see further analysis of the causes. The author seems to merely tack it on to what is otherwise a human-interest adventure story.