Library to host author of disaster book
Shortly before midnight on March 12, 1928, the collapse of the St. Francis Dam near Castaic sent a wall of water, mud and debris crashing toward the Pacific Ocean in what would become one of the deadliest disasters in California, second only to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
The 205-foot-tall dam, considered before the disaster a masterpiece of self-taught engineer William Mulholland and afterward his downfall, held back some 12 billion gallons of water. However, on that night, it let loose a devastating flood down San Francisquito Canyon, killing at least 450 people and destroying four bridges and 1,250 homes on its 54-mile path to the sea.
The new book “Floodpath: The Deadliest Man-Made Disaster of 20th Century America and the Making of Los Angeles,” to be released next week, examines the human and technological failures that led to the catastrophe and “reanimates the reality behind the classic noir fiction film ‘Chinatown,’” according to the publisher.
On Wednesday, Burbank Library’s Buena Vista Branch, 300 N. Buena Vista St., will host an “illustrated talk” and book-signing with author and filmmaker John Wilkman about his book and a forthcoming documentary about the disaster and the dam’s place in California’s water wars.
The event is scheduled to be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at a special price, with sales proceeds benefiting the library.
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Chad Garland, chad.garland@latimes.com
Twitter: @chadgarland
