Catch up with Al Roker
His new book, Ruthless Tide, is out now.
Today’s Al Roker delivers the weather report to NBC viewers each morning, but he’s also the author of many books. His latest, Ruthless Tide: The Heroes and Villains of the Johnstown Flood (William Morrow), is a colorful history of the deadliest flood in U.S. history. On May 31, 1889, epic rainfall caused the South Fork Dam in Pennsylvania coal country to collapse, releasing 20 million tons of water and a torrent of debris that razed the town of Johnstown, 14 miles below. More than 2,200 people died. Roker, just back from the royal wedding, spoke with USA TODAY during a #BookmarkThis chat on Facebook Live. Highlights:
Question: You were part of the To
day show team in Windsor covering the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. What was it like to be on High Street?
Al Roker: As you got into it, you just got drawn in. I was excited about the idea that here was this biracial, AfricanAmerican woman who was going to marry the prince, probably the most modern of the British royals. ... As you got there, you really were taken by how this was just so different from any other royal wedding in modern times. We’re in Windsor, an hour west of London, and the diversity of people gathered to see this was pretty amazing.
Q: What did you think of the blending of royal tradition with the AfricanAmerican elements?
Roker: I thought it was flawlessly done. Bishop (Michael) Curry, I think, struck the right tone. ... That choir was unbelievable. Where I was standing we had people lined up, hundreds, thousands of people, and while they couldn’t see it they could hear it, because they had speakers on. The crowd where I was standing spontaneously burst into Stand by Me, singing the chorus. I get goosebumps thinking about it.
Q: You called out to Meghan after the wedding when the carriage rode by. You think you might have gotten a little royal wave?
Roker: I might have gotten kind of a wave. … There are very few things in life I’m sure of. One of them is, I know for a fact that Meghan Markle, now the duchess of Sussex, is not going to stop the carriage to stop and shake my hand. Best I can hope for is a wave.
Q: The story you tell in Ruthless
Tide is so dramatic, almost cinematic. Have the movies signed up yet?
Roker: It’s funny, you write it and then you finish it up and then, getting ready to talk about the book, you read it again. And I thought, “This could be a movie. Just a wonderful costume piece.” It takes place in 1889, in the Gilded Era. There are some elements that almost stretch belief. I think I probably was like most people: I knew about the Johnstown flood — as a weather person, you know about it. But I didn’t know what caused it, I didn’t know the extent of the damage or the death toll.
Q: There have been a lot of changes on Today in the last few months. Cohosts Savannah (Guthrie) and Hoda (Kotb) seem to be putting out a differ- ent kind of energy as two females. You’re in a post-Matt Lauer era. (Lauer was fired in November after complaints about inappropriate sexual behavior.)
Roker: I think we’re in a place that I don’t know if anybody would have expected us to be, given everything that happened, which was obviously very traumatic for everybody involved. But you talk about energy, and Savannah and Hoda were the perfect people to step into that after what happened. Especially in this day and age. I think it’s great to have a really sharp legal mind — Savannah is about as good an attorney as she is an anchor, she’s just terrific. While Hoda is great and laughing and having a good time with Kathie Lee (Gifford), a lot of people forget she’s covered wars, she’s covered serious news for years. And so you’ve got these two really great journalists who just happen to be women and new moms, relatively new moms. I think out of a tough situation, we’ve kind of stumbled into something that’s very special.