White Hurricane

"Autumn gales have pursued mariners across the Great Lakes for centuries. On Friday, November 7, 1913, those gales captured their prey. After four days of winds up to 90 miles an hour, freezing temperatures, whiteout blizzard conditions, and mountainous seas, 19 ships had been lost, two dozen had been thrown ashore, 238 sailors were dead, and the city of Cleveland was confronting the worst natural disaster in its history. Writer and mariner David G. Brown combines narrative intensity with factual depth to re-create the events of the "perfect storm" that struck America's heartland."--Publisher's description

THE BLIZZARD OF 1888, legendary in the annals of American weather history, was among the most ferocious winter storms ever to pound the Northeast. Many hundreds of people perished on land and sea during its three-day reign of terror, including some 200 in New York City alone - ground-zero for this storm. In his debut novel, Tim Minnich paints a vibrant New York City landscape in the weeks leading up to what has been coined "The Great White Hurricane." Bound to fascinate weather enthusiasts, history buffs, and general readers alike, Minnich captures the suspense which culminates in this awesome display of nature, all while vividly depicting life in late Nineteenth Century Manhattan.On Sunday evening March 11th, the denizens of this great metropolis go to sleep completely unaware they'd be awakening to a howling blizzard. All except for young William Roebling, a brilliant meteorologist recently transferred to the New York Office of the US Army's fledgling Signal Service Corps - the agency responsible for the nation's first weather forecasts. Will has painstakingly developed an ingenious system allowing him to predict this historic event days in advance, but his unconvinced Commanding Officer, for political reasons, orders his silence. A conflicted Will feels he must alert his loved ones, and does - only to find himself in a battle for his life at the height of the storm.Minnich deftly combines the drama and excitement of the blizzard with its profound impact on those unfortunate enough to have been caught in its path, simultaneously weaving an engaging tale of true love, faith, and the indomitable human spirit.

At last, former Under Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Brown—infamously praised by President George W. Bush for doing a "heckuva job" in the wake of Hurricane Katrina—tells his side of the response to one of the greatest natural disasters to occur in the United States. Without making excuses for anyone, least of all the President of the United States or himself, Brown describes in detail what ultimately turned out to be the largest federal response to a natural disaster in U.S. history.

On Thursday, November 6, the Detroit News forecasted “moderate to brisk” winds for the Great Lakes. On Friday, the Port Huron Times-Herald predicted a “moderately severe” storm. Hourly the warnings became more and more dire. Weather forecasting was in its infancy, however, and radio communication was not much better; by the time it became clear that a freshwater hurricane of epic proportions was developing, the storm was well on its way to becoming the deadliest in Great Lakes maritime history. The ultimate story of man versus nature, November’s Fury recounts the dramatic events that unfolded over those four days in 1913, as captains eager—or at times forced—to finish the season tried to outrun the massive storm that sank, stranded, or demolished dozens of boats and claimed the lives of more than 250 sailors. This is an account of incredible seamanship under impossible conditions, of inexplicable blunders, heroic rescue efforts, and the sad aftermath of recovering bodies washed ashore and paying tribute to those lost at sea. It is a tragedy made all the more real by the voices of men—now long deceased—who sailed through and survived the storm, and by a remarkable array of photographs documenting the phenomenal damage this not-so-perfect storm wreaked. The consummate storyteller of Great Lakes lore, Michael Schumacher at long last brings this violent storm to terrifying life, from its first stirrings through its slow-mounting destructive fury to its profound aftereffects, many still felt to this day.

From the bestselling author of The Devil in the White City, here is the true story of the deadliest hurricane in history. National Bestseller September 8, 1900, began innocently in the seaside town of Galveston, Texas. Even Isaac Cline, resident meteorologist for the U.S. Weather Bureau failed to grasp the true meaning of the strange deep-sea swells and peculiar winds that greeted the city that morning. Mere hours later, Galveston found itself submerged in a monster hurricane that completely destroyed the town and killed over six thousand people in what remains the greatest natural disaster in American history--and Isaac Cline found himself the victim of a devastating personal tragedy. Using Cline's own telegrams, letters, and reports, the testimony of scores of survivors, and our latest understanding of the science of hurricanes, Erik Larson builds a chronicle of one man's heroic struggle and fatal miscalculation in the face of a storm of unimaginable magnitude. Riveting, powerful, and unbearably suspenseful, Isaac's Storm is the story of what can happen when human arrogance meets the great uncontrollable force of nature.

One moment the sun is shining on the slopes of El Yunque, the largest mountain in eastern Puerto Rico. The next, everything has changed. The sky has turned deep purple, and you feel as if the air has been sucked from your lungs. That can mean only one thing: A hurricane is coming!

In this stunning debut novel, two very different characters—a black boy who loses his home in Hurricane Katrina and a white boy in Vermont who loses his best friend in a tragic accident—come together to find healing. A hurricane, a tragic death, two boys, one marble. How they intertwine is at the heart of this beautiful, poignant book. When ten-year-old Zavion loses his home in Hurricane Katrina, he and his father are forced to flee to Baton Rouge. And when Henry, a ten-year-old boy in northern Vermont, tragically loses his best friend, Wayne, he flees to ravaged New Orleans to help with hurricane relief efforts—and to search for a marble that was in the pocket of a pair of jeans donated to the Red Cross. Rich with imagery and crackling with hope, this is the unforgettable story of how lives connect in unexpected, even magical, ways. “In Smith’s poetic hands, this poignant story barrels across the pages and into the reader’s heart, reminding us that magic can arise from the deepest tragedy.” —Kathi Appelt, Newbery Honor Award winner and two-time National Book Award Finalist

One hundred years after the hurricane of 1900 devastated Galveston, Texas, it remains the most deadly natural disaster in United States history. Although many heeded the warnings of local weatherman Dr. Isaac Monroe Cline, numerous others did not. More than 6,000 souls perished. Shortly after the storm, author Nathan C. Green set out to share with the world the Story of the 1900 Galveston Hurricane . For those who had lost their lives, he would become their voice; for those who had somehow miraculously survived, he would become their chronicler. To further memorialize the events of the Galveston Hurricane, Pelican has reprinted Dr. Isaac Monroe Cline's Storms, Floods and Sunshine: An Autobiography, which it first published in 1945.

On an August night in 1893, the deadliest hurricane in South Carolina history struck the Lowcountry, killing thousands—almost all African American. But the devastating storm is only the beginning of this story. The hurricane's long effects intermingled with ongoing processes of economic downturn, racial oppression, resistance, and environmental change. In the Lowcountry, the political, economic, and social conditions of Jim Crow were inextricable from its environmental dimensions. This narrative history of a monumental disaster and its aftermath uncovers how Black workers and politicians, white landowners and former enslavers, northern interlocutors and humanitarians all met on the flooded ground of the coast and fought to realize very different visions for the region's future. Through a telescoping series of narratives in which no one's actions were ever fully triumphant or utterly futile, Hurricane Jim Crow explores with nuance this painful and contradictory history and shows how environmental change, political repression, and communal traditions of resistance, survival, and care converged.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The award-winning book that inspired an Apple Original series from Apple TV+ • A landmark investigation of patient deaths at a New Orleans hospital ravaged by Hurricane Katrina—and the suspenseful portrayal of the quest for truth and justice—from a Pulitzer Prize–winning physician and reporter “An amazing tale, as inexorable as a Greek tragedy and as gripping as a whodunit.”—Dallas Morning News After Hurricane Katrina struck and power failed, amid rising floodwaters and heat, exhausted staff at Memorial Medical Center designated certain patients last for rescue. Months later, a doctor and two nurses were arrested and accused of injecting some of those patients with life-ending drugs. Five Days at Memorial, the culmination of six years of reporting by Pulitzer Prize winner Sheri Fink, unspools the mystery, bringing us inside a hospital fighting for its life and into the most charged questions in health care: which patients should be prioritized, and can health care professionals ever be excused for hastening death? Transforming our understanding of human nature in crisis, Five Days at Memorial exposes the hidden dilemmas of end-of-life care and reveals how ill-prepared we are for large-scale disasters—and how we can do better. ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Chicago Tribune, Seattle Times, Entertainment Weekly, Christian Science Monitor, Kansas City Star WINNER: National Book Critics Circle Award, J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award, Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Ridenhour Book Prize, American Medical Writers Association Medical Book Award, National Association of Science Writers Science in Society Award