RAMPAGE: The Story of Disastrous Floods, Broken Dams and Human Fallibility

Yes, in spite of all our technical and engineering accomplishments, floods and dams that ""go bust"" are still with us. The ""disaster"" year of 1972 -- Buffalo Creek, West Virginia; Rapid City, South Dakota; Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania -- has prompted natural catastrophe author Briggs (Will California Fall Into The Sea?) to review the world's more famous and our most recent inundations, the extent and weaknesses of our dam program (there's something wrong when the annual flood prevention budget is $600 million and last year alone ""the president asked Congress for $1.8 billion for flood relief""), and how we might go about rectifying the situation. The waterlogged prose aside, little appeal except to ark-builders and the official flotsam and jetsam responsible for preventing and mopping up the mess.