#BookmarkThis with Al Roker
Ask questions about his new book, Ruthless Tide.
You’ll want to #BookmarkThis. On May 22, join USA TODAY for a Facebook live chat with NBC Today show co-host and weather anchor Al Roker about his new book, Ruthless Tide: The Heroes and Villains of the Johnstown Flood, America’s Astonishing Gilded Age Disaster (William Morrow).
#BookmarkThis is a series of live video chats with best-selling authors. Fans can submit questions during the chat and in advance.
It’s a great opportunity to touch base with Roker, who in Ruthless Tide (on sale May 22) tells the story of the deadliest flood in U.S. history.
On May 31,1889, an epic rainfall caused the South Fork Dam to collapse in southwestern Pennsylvania, releasing 20 million tons of water and raining down a torrent of water and debris (including locomotives, trees, houses and animals) that razed the mill town of Johnstown. More than 2,200 lives were lost.
But this isn’t as simple as a badweather story: Gilded Age tycoons including Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick built an exclusive lakefront club in the Allegheny Mountains, and their interests were being served at the expense of the townspeople 14 miles below when the dam gave way.
Roker explores the dramatic disaster through the eyes of those who lived through it, such as 6-year-old survivor Gertrude Quinn and Clara Barton, who arrived to help and put the Red Cross on the map.
Roker is also author of 2015’s The Storm of the Century, an account of the devastating Galveston hurricane of 1900; USA TODAY’s review said the book delivered “a fascinating, multifaceted story.”
Other books by the Emmy Award winner include the children’s title Al Roker’s Extreme Weather; Been There, Done That: Family Wisdom for Modern Times, written with his wife, Deborah Roberts; and a series of mysteries including The Morning Show Murders.