How many times have you heard the television or radio alert, "We
are now under a flash flood watch"? While the destructive force of
flash flooding is a regular occurrence in the state and has caused a
tremendous amount of damage and heartache over the years, no one
until now has recorded in a single book the history of flash floods in
Texas.
After combing libraries and archives, grilling county historians,
trekking to flood sites, and collecting scores of graphic photographs,
Jonathan Burnett chose twenty-eight floods from around the state to
create this narrative of a century of disastrous events. Beginning with
the famous Austin dam break of 1900 and ending with the historic
2002 flooding in the Hill Country, Burnett chronicles the causes and
courses of these catastrophic floods as well as their costs in material
damage and human lives.
Dramatic photographs of each event enhance the harrowing
accounts of danger spawned by nature on a rampage. Together, the
stories and the pictures give readers a vivid and lasting image of the
power and unpredictability of flash floods in Texas.
_________________________________________________________
JONATHAN BURNETT is an engineer in the semiconductor field in
Austin, Texas. His theoretical work related to hydrology and
floodwater flows led him to a fascination with floods and a decade-
long quest for information.
River Books, sponsored by the River Systems Institute at Texas
State University
What people are saying about this book
"Burnett's work adds appreciably to our knowledge of high-water
events and their impact on the people of Texas. Virtually all of the
information about such movements has been buried in summary
reports written by bureaucrats for specific purposes, or in local
newspapers whose readership is greatly restricted. Burnett neatly
compiles so much of this information in a form that is readily
accessible and digestible. Moreover, his documentation is
superlative. . . ."—George W. Bomar, State Meteorologist
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