U.S. citizens pumped, paddled, dug, abandoned their automobiles, froze, chased their hats, lit candles, ran for their lives and occasionally died as some of the foulest weather in history swept the nation from coast to coast.
Nature's ill-tempered attack began in a soft and sneaky way with warm rains on the Sierra Nevada Mountains. But rain melted snow, snow fed creek, creek swelled river, and before a husband could stagger upstairs with the best of the furniture, there was swirling water in thousands of parlors in California and Nevada.
The Truckee River swept...