Floodpath
The Deadliest Man-Made Disaster of 20th-Century America and the Making of Modern Los Angeles
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- USD 18.99
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- USD 18.99
Descripción editorial
Amazon Book of the Year
"Floodpath attempts to rescue the disaster from obscurity . . . The author captures many heartbreaking stories of survivors . . . The effect is powerful." --The Wall Street Journal
A visionary and controversial search for water made Los Angeles possible. But the failure of the St. Francis Dam remains an urgent lesson about our human limits, all but forgotten today.
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. A key figure is William Mulholland, the self-taught engineer who created an unprecedented water system, allowing Los Angeles to become America's second largest city, and who was also responsible for the design and construction of the St. Francis Dam.
Driven by eyewitness accounts and combining urban history with a life-and-death drama and a technological detective story, Floodpath grippingly reanimates the reality behind L.A. noir fictions like the classic film Chinatown. In an era of climate change, increasing demand on water resources, and a neglected American infrastructure, the tragedy of the St. Francis Dam has never been more relevant.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Popular knowledge of early Los Angeles's struggle for water owes much to the film Chinatown, but documentary filmmaker and writer Wilkman (Los Angeles: A Pictorial Celebration, with Nancy Wilkman) shows that the real story of L.A.'s water is as fascinating and devastating as the fictionalized version. In 1928, the St. Francis Dam, which held more than 51 million tons of water for Los Angeles, failed, resulting in a 54-mile-long flood path and leaving almost 500 dead. True to its title, this book maintains a focus on the flood itself, but with ample historical context and discussion of the sociopolitical effects up to the present. Wilkman's goal is to tell the truth about this largely forgotten episode, and he succeeds by studying the personal stories of those who were affected, the investigation into the collapse, and the various theories as to why the dam failed. His extensive research reveals the effects that institutional racism had on victim compensation and care in the flood's aftermath, and supplies details down to the occasional meal description. More than just the story of one of the greatest tragedies in the 20th century, Wilkman's book is also a commentary on developing safe technologies in the face of climate change. B&w photos.
