People knew it was a bad dam. People talked every spring that it was going to break. They just didn't know what the consequences would be.

220

They began recovery literally the next day.

211

This was new and fresh and painful for people at that time. This affected Americans in a profound and personal way.

206

There was just a relentless echo in the newspaper. This town was going to be rebuilt and be even better.

187

If you can see your community getting back to order in a reasonable period of time, it'll recover. If there's a kind of prolonged period where it's not clear if life's ever going to go back to normal, those communities don't do as well.

163

Here's a community that faced the worst that man or nature could throw at it, but they were able to put their lives back to normal.

142