Victor Heiser hangs off the edge of a roof, dangling over the floodwaters raging below.

His bare feet scramble against the roof shingles

as he tries in vain to gain a foothold.

Victor glances down.

If he falls, he'll plummet into the water 10 feet below. He imagines himself swept away like so many others on this awful day, including his own mother and father.

16 year old Victor watched helplessly from the roof of his family's barn

as his home was crushed by debris and floodwaters,

with his parents still inside.

He has no idea if they're alive or dead, but he fears the worst.

He kicks again at the shingles, but they're wet and loose.

One breaks away and flutters into the water below.

It's late afternoon on May 31st, 1889 in John's town, Pennsylvania.

Not long ago, the whole town was inundated by a catastrophic flood.

Victor floated here on a piece of tin roof from his family's barn, then was forced to leap onto the

shingled roof of this house when his makeshift raft collided with it.

But moments later, the whole house crumbled and collapsed beneath him.

As the roof tilted up vertically, he managed to snag the top edge, but he's not sure how much

longer he can hang on. He can feel his arm starting to cramp, sending spasms of pain down to his shoulders.

And now the edge of the roof is beginning to crumble beneath his fingers.

Below him, floating debris keeps slamming against what's left of the house.

Barrels of dry goods and fragments of other buildings send up showers of glass and

splinters as they collide below him. It's like being trapped inside an ongoing

...