Glenn Walters, a Dayton area documentary film/television producer from 1954 to 1999 and communication professor at University of Dayton, didn't know what he was getting when he purchased a movie camera from the NCR archives that came with a stack of film reels. He later discovered the original 1913 flood footage on a reel that would ignite a passion for educating future generations on the history of the greatest natural disaster ever to hit Ohio.

Brother Andy Weber, a Marianist at St. Mary's College during the time of the 1913 Dayton flood, recalls seeing the waters rising and fires erupting in the city from his St. Mary's dormitory window in an oral history.