Everything in Its Path: Destruction of Community in the Buffalo Creek Flood [Paperback]

Kai T. Erikson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 1978

A Simon & Schuster eBook

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition (April 15, 1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671240676
• ISBN-13: 978-0671240677
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,394 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #12 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Earth Sciences > Natural Disasters
  • #62 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Conservation

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sociology must, April 13, 2002

By 

J. Park - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Everything in Its Path: Destruction of Community in the Buffalo Creek Flood (Paperback)

This was an excellent book, well-written and informative. Using Buffalo Creek as the fulcrum, Erikson provides readers with a good introduction of communities and trauma. It is interesting to note the similarities and differences between the aftermaths of Sept 11 and Buffalo Creek. Erikson's book is a must read for social scientists and anyone interested in creative non-fiction writing.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wrecked lives, June 2, 2006

By 

The Jet "JSJ" (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Everything in Its Path: Destruction of Community in the Buffalo Creek Flood (Paperback)

In the summer of 1948, we lived in Lorado, West Virginia (Logan County). The Buffalo Creek ran behind `our' house, while a road and the tracks of the C&O Railroad ran just beyond our front yard. The photo on page 37 shows those tracks that we often walked from Lorado towards Man, WV. It could well be a picture of our former front yard.

I , of course, remember the news accounts of the 1972 disaster.

So, I have a personal outlook at this sociological follow-up of the lives wrecked when the earth dam and mine tailings gave way.

Kai Erickson has done a deeply moving and eloquent account of the ramifications of this recent tragedy.

I recommend it to all interested in mankind and the factors that fall upon our fellow travelers as we all 'work our way through life.'

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent description of a tragic disaster in West Va., April 18, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (West Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Everything in Its Path: Destruction of Community in the Buffalo Creek Flood (Paperback)

Excellent descriptions of how survivors dealt with the total destruction of everything they had built and accomplished in their entire lives. All of this was taken from them by a "man made" damn and wall of water within minutes. Mr. Erikson did a wonderful job of relating to the people from the coal camps and realizing what their lives had been about......he truely shows the suffering involved in this disaster.