CALAMITY: THE HEPPNER FLOOD OF 1903, by Joann Green Byrd
About the Book
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NEW: Watch TVW's Author's Hour interview with Joann Byrd The Heppner Flood is the most deadly disaster in Northwest history. But few people know about the flash flood that roared through the eastern Oregon farm community on a hot Sunday afternoon in 1903. It claimed 245 lives--about one Heppner person in five. Longtime Northwest journalist Joann Green Byrd has written a comprehensive account of the flood using the voice of a storyteller. Reared 60 miles from Heppner, Byrd first realized the scale of the tragedy a century after it happened. She was compelled to find out who these victims were and why they died. Using interviews, letters, memoirs, thousands of news stories and court documents, enlightening maps and a remarkable collection of photos, Byrd spent five years researching and writing Calamity: The Heppner Flood of 1903. The book was published in August 2009 by the University of Washington Press. It is a Northwest story. In 1903, Heppner could not depend on FEMA and the Red Cross for relief. But individuals, organizations and communities all over the Northwest dropped everything to come to Heppner's aid. Thousands of small contributions of money, labor and goods poured into Heppner, and together, they got Heppner back on her feet. That is just one example of the lesson woven through Calamity: Even our smallest acts have consequences--bad consequences or good.
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 Published by University of Washington Press
The Ayers home, shown before and after the flood.
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