Come into the water...

This is the title of the latest book I've started.  Having spent 17 years in the Rapid City and Black Hills areas, one commemorates the Rapid City flood each year in June.  I remember my Dad traveling to Rapid City to help with cleanup that summer (1972).  He worked for the SD Department of Transportation, and although I was only four at the time, I still recall the graveness of the situation.

Come into the water: a survivor's story by Merlyn Janet Magner was just released this year.  Although I've read plenty of newspaper accounts and articles chronicling the flood, this is the first book I've read.  I'm about 1/3 of the way through and can hardly bring myself to put it down.  I've just passed the section where Magner (19 at the time) and her brother (21) had to crawl out a kitchen window of their house as the water rose very quickly.  She gets caught up in the current, but luckily manages to crawl onto a roof downstream and spends the night there shivering in the pouring rain.

Unfortunately, Magner loses both parents and one older brother in the flood.  Their house, which was located in a canyon, was completely washed away.  Years later after much soul searching and dealing with the pain of that night, Magner shares her story.