Three Rivers Rising

Written in verse form, Three Rivers Rising, a novel of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania flood of 1889 has multiple narrators that tell the story of that tragic day which took so many lives.
One narrator is Celestia. She is 16 and along with her mama and papa and older sister Estrella vacation at an elite resort in the Alleghany Mountains. The resort sits on Lake Conemaugh –a reservoir held in place by an earthen dam. Three rivers—South Fork Creek, Little Conemaugh River, and Stony Creek converge at the town of Johnstown in the valley below the resort.

A second narrator, Peter, lives with his father, a coal miner in Johnstown. When he takes a job at the elite resort, he meets Celestia and is immediately attracted to her.

A third narrator, Kate, is a girl determined to become a nurse.

A final narrator is Maura. She is the mother of four children all under the age of four years old. Her husband drives the locomotive which runs through the valley where the three rivers flow.

As their stories unfold over the course of several months, you are pulled into their time and history. You can witness the flood. You will feel what it must have been like on that fateful day when the dam gave way!