ANGRY WATERS: Floods and Their Control

Fodor begins in the midst of a July, 1951, flood in Kansas--the result of a 16"" rainfall on land soaked from 53 straight days of rain--and throughout his first chapter, each flood cause mentioned (hurricane, melting snow, tsunami, etc.) is illustrated by a particular example. This plan represents some thought about writing for children, but after a while the one-for-one alternation comes to seem mechanical. And Fodor, never ablaze with social consciousness, blames lack of concern on the part of ""local residents"" for the Johnstown, Pa., flood of 1889 A second chapter on measures of protection against floods (levees, floodwalls, dams) ends, properly, by acknowledging that ""not building near water"" is becoming the preferred strategy. But again, you don't get from Fodor any digging beneath the surface (or, say, behind the snail darter issue on the Tellico Dam controversy). A final, strictly procedural chapter, also dotted with examples, reviews National Weather Service forecasting techniques and warning systems. It's all trimmed for today's ""skinny book"" scholars--but never dramatic or revealing as is Brown's somewhat older Historical Catastrophes: Floods (1975).