TV REVIEWS : True-Life ‘Flood’ Gets High Marks

Yet another true-life tragedy feeds TV’s seemingly insatiable desire for disaster dramas, but surprise: NBC’s “The Flood: Who Will Save Our Children?” (at 9 p.m. Sunday on Channels 4, 36 and 39), based on a lethal 1987 flash-flood in Texas that trapped two busloads of teens returning from Bible camp, is a cut above most.

The movie, starring Joe Spano as the camp’s organizer and one of the bus drivers, is presented with simplicity, unexpected restraint and some gripping real and dramatized film footage. For the most part it accomplishes its stated intent: to pay tribute to the teens, their families and the rescue workers.

After get-acquainted preliminaries that introduce the predictable players, the nightmare unfolds as homeward-bound buses are trapped in rising flood waters.

Some teens heroically save themselves and others; some are swept under by debris raging by. The young actors bring heart-rending reality to the ordeal as they re-create the struggle in flood waters that seem disturbingly genuine. Great art? No. But Chris Thomson, who directed, and David J. Kinghorn, who wrote the teleplay and co-wrote the story with Donna Kanter, prove that a human touch and a little heart can go a long way.