So little has been written about the Austin Flood of September 30th, 1911 that I felt it a duty to collect as much material as possible about the disaster and have this book printed if for no other reason than for reference. A collection of 1911 and 1912 newspapers was made over a ten-year period and although the newspaper reporters had a field day telling many imaginary tales, there was an opportunity for comparison so that the truth could be separated from fiction without too much difficulty. The tast would have been easier if there had been a complete collection of all the newspapers published during the twelve months following the flood. Since so many copies of each paper are missing, there is little or no thematic continuity in the material. If it appears to my readers that my comments at times are not true, I ask your forebearance, I certainly tried to give as accurate and unbiased a picture of all events connected with the catastrophe as was possible (taken from preface). Contents include: Brief History of Austin and Costello previous to September 30th, 1911, September 30th, 1911, Organization, Resultant Problems, In Retrospect (The Grace Collins Story, The Unheeded Warnings, The Lafe Starkweather Escape, The Madge Nelson Story, The James Lehman Story, The William Robertson Story, The Lost Ring, The Value of One Purse), Conclusion, Appendix, Losses and Contributions, List of Dead.
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This review is from: The Dam That Could Not Break: An Eye-witness Account of the 1911 Austin Flood (Paperback)
I enjoyed the book for several reasons, be it completely correct or not, I have no way of knowing. However I believe it is as close to fact as one could get, giving the length of time since the event's passing and all.
My main reason for purchasing this book is that it mentions an ancestor cousin of mine who was looking for her mother that evening following the flood, and frantically continuing in vein her desperate search into the darkness. Her mother was my great aunt, and being a history buff and genealogist (by addiction), and having, in the family archives, a photo of that family including her husband and three daughters as well as a short newspaper clip of, not the event itself, but of the discovery of mom a week later in the debris. I could not help but to investigate the tragedy more, and subsequently find this book Many thanks to the Potter County Historical Society in Pennsylvania for helping me with this research and for pointing out the mentioning of my ancestors in this book. This book puts a story to a photograph in my family archives. This book may or may not be of interest just as reading material unless you have some historical connection or wish to learn more about this particular event in history.
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