Red River Rising: The Anatomy of a Flood and the Survival of an American City

On April 19, 1997, in one of the most dramatic floods in U.S. history, more than 50,000 people abandoned their homes and businesses in Grand Forks, North Dakota. A nation watched as the heart of downtown, engulfed by a river, burst into flames above the water line. Like Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm, Red River Rising is a compelling true-life narrative about the confluence of natural forces and human error that shaped one of the greatest natural disasters in U.S. history.

Ashley Shelby tells the dramatic story of the flood: the suspenseful, blizzard-filled spring; the difficulties scientists had in predicting the river's crest; the struggles of people who fought the rising waters and of those who marshalled the city's forces. Memorable individuals people these pages -- a college student, a school lunch lady, a telephone repairman, a childcare provider, a professor, and politicians and civil servants whose lives were forever changed. Despite technological advances in meteorology, despite the brute force of hundreds of earth movers, despite the utter determination of thousands who built and walked the levees, the river won.

This book is more than a gripping story of ordinary people rising to an extraordinary challenge. It is a clear-eyed examination of the disastrous aftermath: the second-guessing and blame directed at the National Weather Service, at city and federal officials, and at the people of Grand Forks themselves as the city struggled to rebuild. With empathy and penetrating intelligence, Shelby pinpoints for the first time the moment when science failed, and she uncovers the conflicts, conspiracy theories, and recriminations that tore at the community after the waters fell.