It was the most widespread natural disaster in the history of the United States, claiming more than a thousand lives over fifteen states. The Great Easter Flood of 1913 gutted the industrial north, wreaking havoc on railroads, bridges, dams, telephone and telegraph communications, steel mills and water treatment plants—not to mention countless homes. Author Trudy Bell recounts those calamitous days in searing detail, including the story of the Clevelanders who rallied from their own misfortune to be the first responders in hard-hit Dayton.