Under Water: a natural disaster memoir – Owen Grimenstein - 4 stars

[Linda C]

In May 2010 Owen Grimenstein, his wife and year old son, lived through a devastating flood caused by record breaking rainfall (18” in 38 hours). His neighborhood was in a U shaped bend in the Harpeth River that crested at 33', 9 feet above flood stage. So they were surrounded by the river. Once it overflowed the banks it did not take long to cover the area, which was relatively flat. They got a call from the across the street river-front neighbor at 4:30 am when it reached their back door. By 6 am when the Grimenstein's left the water was half-way up their tires. Needless to say they lost most everything. The memoir documents hour by hour the days of the flooding and the massive neighborly effort to clean-up. This was a disaster that got little national media coverage, happening at the same time as the BP oil rig fire and spill in the Gulf. Well researched and documented and probably a sort of catharsis for the author.

[Linda C]

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