This article explores the shift in women’s roles in the 1997 Grand Forks flood in the US. Based on field research and sixty in-depth interviews, Fothergill explores women's community, family, and work roles before, during, and after the disaster. By examining the ways in which women's roles shifted and the meanings the women attached to the roles, she found that women experienced role accumulation, which resulted in an expansion of both their roles and their sense of self. By successfully performing the “greedy” family role, the emergent community role, and expanding work roles the women often discovered a new sense of confidence, self-worth, and competence.