A revised series provides detailed overviews of devastating world disasters, weaving together important background information with gripping accounts from survivors and victims.
The Sunshine State has an exceptionally stormy past. Vulnerable to storms that arise in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico, Florida has been hit by far more hurricanes than any other state. In many ways, hurricanes have helped shape Florida's history. Early efforts by the French, Spanish, and English to claim the territory as their own were often thwarted by hurricanes. More recently, storms have affected such massive projects as Henry Flagler's Overseas Railroad and efforts to manage water in South Florida. In this book, Jay Barnes offers a fascinating and informative look at Florida's hurricane history. Drawing on meteorological research, news reports, first-person accounts, maps, and historical photographs, he traces all of the notable hurricanes that have affected the state over the last four-and-a-half centuries, from the great storms of the early colonial period to the devastating hurricanes of 2004 and 2005--Charley, Frances, Ivan, Jeanne, Dennis, Katrina, and Wilma. In addition to providing a comprehensive chronology of more than one hundred individual storms, Florida's Hurricane History includes information on the basics of hurricane dynamics, formation, naming, and forecasting. It explores the origins of the U.S. Weather Bureau and government efforts to study and track hurricanes in Florida, home of the National Hurricane Center. But the book does more than examine how hurricanes have shaped Florida's past; it also looks toward the future, discussing the serious threat that hurricanes continue to pose to both lives and property in the state. Filled with more than 200 photographs and maps, the book also features a foreword by Steve Lyons, tropical weather expert for the Weather Channel. It will serve as both an essential reference on hurricanes in Florida and a remarkable source of the stories--of tragedy and destruction, rescue and survival--that foster our fascination with these powerful storms.
Veteran journalist Mathis has produced a compulsively readable account of one of the most terrible tornadoes in history--a mile-wide F5 twister--and the extraordinary people who kept it from becoming the deadliest.
The ultimate guide to the ultimate storms, Hurricane Watch is a fascinating blend of science and history from one of the world's foremost meteorologists and an award-winning science journalist. This in-depth look at these awe-inspiring acts of nature covers everything from the earliest efforts by seafarers at predicting storms to the way satellite imaging is revolutionizing hurricane forecasting. It reveals the latest information on hurricanes: their effects on ocean waves, the causes of the variable wind speeds in different parts of the storm, and the origins of the super-cooled shafts of water that vent at high altitudes. Hurricane Watch is a compelling history of man's relationship with the deadliest storms on earth. Includes: - The story of the nineteenth-century Cuban Jesuit whose success at predicting the great cyclones was considered almost mystical. - A new look at Isaac Cline, whose infamous failure to predict the Galveston Hurricane left him obsessed with the devastating effects of storm surge. - The story of the Hurricane Hunters, including the first man ever to deliberately fly into a hurricane. - A complete account of how computer modeling has changed hurricane tracking. - A history of Project Stormfury: the only significant, organized effort to reduce the damaging strength of severe hurricanes. - A unique firsthand account of Hurricane Andrew by both authors, who were at the National Hurricane Center when Andrew struck. - A listing of the deadliest storms in history.
* New York Times best seller!* Billy Graham offers hope and biblical wisdom for today's challenging problems. The daily news is jammed with alarming headlines of conflict in the Middle East, economic crisis, and terrorist threats around the world. In Storm Warning, Billy Graham — the best-known evangelist of our time — examines today’s most challenging problems and adds his voice and perspective to what the Bible says about the storms we are facing... and the storms yet to come. Since its original publication, Graham has added nearly two decades to his ministry and has lived through several more storms. This completely revised and updated book highlights Graham's experiences, insights, and renewed sense of urgency as he examines the book of Revelation in light of current events—and sees prophetic events become reality. “Now in the twenty-first century, we see accelerated growth of unrestrained greed and corruption on Wall Street, financial mismanagement in the halls of government, and fraud and perversion at the highest levels of both church and state. While keeping an eye on the showdown that many observers feel may be brewing even now in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and North America, many people sense the possibility of an even greater unraveling in the world. Can we find any hope in the current world situation? Will there be lasting peace? How should we live in the face of our nation’s new challenges and the magnitude of the world’s crises? These are important—even vital—questions, and I invite you to come with me as we discover the answers God has given us.” —Billy Graham
A revised series provides detailed overviews of devastating world disasters, weaving together important background information with gripping accounts from survivors and victims.
With modern weather forecasting, we can monitor, track, and predict the path of hurricanes like never before. But all you have to do is look at pictures of the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina or research the massive cleanup costs of Hurricane Sandy to realize that these storms can still have devastating consequences. Wayne Neely, a meteorologist at the Department of Meteorology in Nassau, Bahamas, and a leading authority on hurricanes, reveals the science behind hurricanes as he examines some of the most terrifying and devastating storms of the Caribbean and the Americas. Spanning more than five centuries and drawing on extensive archival research from Europe, the Americas, and the Caribbean, Neely emphasizes the continuing role of race, societal inequality, and economic ideology in the shaping of our responses to hurricanes. With the prospect of hurricanes becoming fiercer and more destructive, he offers a much-needed opportunity to understand and study these freaks of nature. Whether youre a historian, amateur meteorologist, student, or someone who wants to be prepared in case of a massive storm, youll be impressed with the forces of nature revealed in The Greatest and Deadliest Hurricanes of the Caribbean and the Americas.
Unprecedented changes appear to be occurring more often and more rapidly than ever before. We notice these changes and events more readily due to the advent of the information age and the continual technological innovation that has accompanied it. New methods of the manufacture and the dissemination of information expose us to crises in ways previously impossible. These crises often lead to the exposure of new ways of understanding. The lifting of veils allows us to see these crises more clearly. In turn, these epiphanies invite imaginative and creative responses. This volume interprets this situation in a new way—not just as an examination of what happens to us and the variety of crises we face, but the way in which we understand them. How do we produce new ways of thinking and discussing crises? What is the role of imagination in both the description of crisis and the response to it? How are we changed and how do we change our thinking and writing as a result? There are two sides of the veil, with crisis on one side and imagination on the other. The issue of lifting veils—of revelatory change—expresses the contributors’ interest in the intersection of and collaboration between different disciplines. As an interdisciplinary project, this book takes a new approach in discussing our current condition. Lifting the veil radically undoes the past, opens us to the future through change, and provides the possibility for vision and hope.