Books about Flooding from Amazon.com

This book gathers together responses to the hurricane from over thirty contributors, including community activists, sociologists, writers, and musicians Some have been displaced by the hurricane and write about what they have lost in the flooding of New Orleans. Others write from a distance, seeing patterns in the response to the hurricane that reflect a racially biased culture. Together they offer not only critical assessments of what went wrong, but also hopeful conjecture about possibilities for the future of the Gulf Coast and the United States..
Price: $49.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Since the early 1940s, the remains of Valley Forge, Connecticut have lain one hundred feet beneath the waters of the Saugatuck Reservoir. The town, once a thriving nineteenth-century iron and steel manufacturing town, was rendered an unwilling victim to the Bridgeport Hydraulic Company's post-World War I plans for the scenic valley. Historic glass plate negatives depicting the lost town in its heyday, documented in the 1860s by Civil War photographer Charles H.D. Adelbert Whitlock and others, lay unnoticed in an abandoned garage until their chance discovery in 1969. In Village of the Dammed, James Lomuscio has reconstructed from these images and other remarkable primary sources the story of the rise and fall of Valley Forge. He shares with the reader extraordinary reproductions of the historical photographs and reminiscences of the futile battle to save the town. Village of the Dammed is the stirring story of the proud Yankee residents' resistance in the late 1930s to the proposed flooding and its life-altering repercussions.

Though unsuccessful in Valley Forge, in the 1990s a second group of dedicated grassroots Connecticut citizens opposed the development of nearby Trout Brook Valley through a land sell-off by Aquarion (now the owner of the Bridgeport Hydraulic Company). With the moral and financial support of popular actor and local resident Paul Newman, Trout Brook Valley was saved after a heated battle.

Flooding natural valleys for commercial gain has been a volatile issue for almost a century. As the population of the American northeast continues to grow and spread, placing new demands on established resources, communities are frequently confronted with forces and choices not unlike those faced by Valley Forge and Trout Brook Valley. Village of the Dammed reminds us to be ever vigilant in the protection of our irreplaceable environmental heritage..
Price: $14.94 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Time may be running out for Venice. The frequency of flooding is increasing and Venice is no better protected today than it was in November 1966, when a violent storm surge left the city under 2 metres of floodwater. The environmental future is bleak, with continuing land subsidence, acceleration in the rate of sea level rise and possible changes in storminess in prospect. Surrounding the city is a lagoon ecosystem showing signs of severe environmental degradation. This timely scientific and technical volume synthesises the great volume and diversity of recent interdisciplinary research on Venice and its lagoon. The lessons reported here are relevant not only to Venice but also to all those that live and work under the threat of coastal flooding, including the inhabitants of other great cultural centres, like London and St. Petersburg..
Price: $181.52 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Although better known for its sunny skies, Los Angeles suffers devastating flooding. This book explores a fascinating and little-known chapter in the city's history--the spectacular failures to control floods that occurred throughout the twentieth century. Despite the city's 114 debris dams, 5 flood control basins, and nearly 500 miles of paved river channels, Southern Californians have discovered that technologically engineered solutions to flooding are just as disaster-prone as natural waterways. Jared Orsi's lively history unravels the strange and often hazardous ways that engineering, politics, and nature have come together in Los Angeles to determine the flow of water. He advances a new paradigm--the urban ecosystem--for understanding the city's complex and unpredictable waterways and other issues that are sure to play a large role in future planning.
As he traces the flow of water from sky to sea, Orsi brings together many disparate and intriguing pieces of the story, including local and national politics, the little-known San Gabriel Dam fiasco, the phenomenal growth of Los Angeles, and, finally, the influence of environmentalism. Orsi provocatively widens his vision toward other cities for which Los Angeles may offer a lesson--both of things gone wrong and a glimpse of how they might be improved..
Price: $39.94 [Notify me when price goes down.]