Al Roker: The Ruthless Tide and America's Deadliest Flood

Today Show weatherman and acclaimed author Al Roker discusses his compelling book Ruthless Tide, which chronicles the 1889 Johnstown Flood that killed over 2,200 people and remains America's deadliest flooding disaster 139 years later. Roker explains how the tragedy resulted from the hubris of the era's wealthiest industrialists—oil, steel, and railroad magnates who created an exclusive club with a recreational lake maintained by a faulty dam. Through meticulous research that reads like a blockbuster movie, Roker reveals how 20 million tons of water released within 30 minutes traveled up to 60 miles per hour, devastating everything in its path.The book explores how this catastrophe transformed American society, changing liability laws, environmental regulations, and business responsibility standards while putting the Red Cross on the map as the nation's premier disaster relief organization. Roker draws urgent parallels to today's challenges, warning that rolling back environmental protections and zoning regulations at the exact time climate change is intensifying storms and flooding represents dangerous timing. He also shares a delightful Sesame Street memory about his daughter's reaction to seeing Big Bird being operated, promoting his new Sirius XM show "Afterrails" with colleagues Janelle Jones and Dylan Dreyer on the Today Show channel.