Floodpath : the deadliest man-made disaster of 20th-century America and the making of modern Los Angeles

Summary: "Just before midnight on March 12, 1928, the St. Francis Dam, a twenty-story-high concrete structure just fifty miles north of Los Angeles, suddenly collapsed, releasing a devastating flood that roared fifty-four miles to the Pacific Ocean, destroying everything in its path. It was a horrific catastrophe, yet one which today is virtually forgotten. With research gathered over more than two decades, award-winning writer and filmmaker Jon Wilkman revisits the deluge that claimed nearly five hundred lives."--Jacket.

Item details

ISBN: 9781620409152
ISBN: 1620409151
Physical Description: print
326 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
Publisher: New York : Bloomsbury Press, 2016.

Contents / Notes

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 283-310) and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Monday -- The Chief and the City of the Angels -- "There it is, take it!" -- Holding back the future -- A monster in the dark -- No time for nightmares -- The dead zone -- Sympathy, anger, and amends -- Arguing over the ruins -- Los Angeles on trial -- Rewinding time -- Hasty conclusions and high dams -- Paying the price and moving on -- Unfinished business and historical amnesia -- Charley's obsession and computer time machines -- After the fall.