Myths and Mysteries of Florida reveals the dark and ominous cloud of mysteries and myths that hovers over the Sunshine State. This book offers residents, travelers, history buffs, and ghost hunters a refreshingingly lively collection of stories about Florida's unsolved murders, legendary villains, lingering ghosts, terrifying myths, and haunted places.
Since the first edition of The Human Side of Disaster was published in 2009, new catastrophes have plagued the globe, including earthquakes in Haiti and New Zealand, tornadoes in Alabama and Missouri, floods in numerous locations, Hurricane Sandy, and the infamous BP oil spill. Enhanced with new cases and real-world examples, The Human Side of Disaster, Second Edition presents an updated summary of the social science knowledge base of human responses to disaster. Dr. Drabek draws upon his 40-plus years of conducting research on individual, group, and organizational responses to disaster to illustrate and integrate key insights from the social sciences to teach us how to anticipate human behaviors in crisis. The book begins with a series of original short stories rooted within actual disaster events. These stories are woven into the entire text to demonstrate essential findings from the research literature. Dr. Drabek provides an overview of the range of disasters and hazards confronting the public and an explanation of why these are increasing each year, both in number and scope of impact. The core of the book is a summary of key findings regarding disaster warning responses, evacuation behavior, initial post-impact survival behavior, traditional and emergent roles of volunteers, and both short-term and longer-term disaster impacts. The theme of "organized-disorganization" is used to illustrate multiorganizational response networks that form the key managerial task for local emergency managers. The final chapter provides a new vision for the emergency management profession—one that reflects a more strategic approach wherein disasters are viewed as non-routine social problems. This book will continue to be an invaluable reference for professionals and students in emergency management and public policy and aid organizations who need to understand human behavior and how best to communicate and work with the public in disaster situations.
A National Book Award Nominee and a Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year. Over the centuries, Florida has been many things: an unconquered realm protected by geography, a wilderness that ruined Spanish conquistadors, “God’s waiting room,” and a place to start over. Depopulated after the extermination of its original native population, today it’s home to nineteen million. The site of vicious racial violence, including massacres, slavery, and the roll-back of Reconstruction, Florida is now one of our most diverse states, a dynamic multicultural place with an essential role in twenty-first-century America. In Finding Florida, T. D. Allman reclaims the remarkable history of Florida from the state’s mythologizers, apologists, and boosters. Allman traces the discovery, exploration, and settlement of Florida, its transformation from a swamp to “paradise.” Palm Beach, Key West, Miami, Tampa, and Orlando boomed, fortunes were won and lost, land was stolen and flipped, and millions arrived. The product of a decade of research and writing, Finding Florida is the first modern comprehensive history of this fascinating place. “A take-no-prisoners account . . . Extremely timely and relevant.” —The New York Times Book Review “The Seminole Wars, the Civil War, various massacres, Reconstruction, a second Reconstruction, Disney World, the Marielitos, voter suppression—it’s all here, and even Carl Hiaasen couldn’t make it up.” —Booklist, starred review
These books, produced from the archives ofthe Library of Congress and edited by Vincent Virga, offer a glimpse into the history of the United States through rare historical full-color maps, narrative captions, and short essays. Combining 50 rare, beautiful, and diverse maps of the Sunshine State from the collections of the Library of Congress, a foreword by Vincent Virga about the Library of Congress collection and the Florida maps, informative captions about the origins and contents of those maps, and essays on state history, this book is a collectible for cartography buffs and a celebration of Florida for residents, former residents, and visitors.
From the time the first humans reached the Florida peninsula more than 12,000 years ago through today's complex and diverse state, this timeline narrative sets Florida's fascinating history against the backdrop of world events. Learn how early native peoples, European exploration, wars, and transformative economic, social, cultural, and technological changes have shaped and continue to shape the "Sunshine State."
"When Last on the Mountain is an open look at the many and astonishing ways our bodies bear both curses and blessing and is a testament to our abiding need to address in language and image the body's sure and swift betrayals. From a vantage point of life after fifty, with grace and humor these writers peer soberly at the future while maintaining their gaze on the past."—Gina Ochsner, author of The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight "A fun and varied read. Insightful, witty, and sometimes heartbreaking selections, but all with an underlying fire for life."—Will Weaver, author of Sweet Land: New & Selected Stories "Who better to bear witness to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune than writers over 50? The voices of experience collected by Lettmann and Roan are generous in their honest specificity. Prospective readers can be assured of a good and meaningful time with these stories, essays and poems."—Sam Hodges, reporter for The Dallas Morning News and author of B-Four "When Last on the Mountain is a book full of treasures. From these writers comes work of substance, surprise, and death-defying candor. To read these pieces is to be inside an art that sifts through comedy, irony, and hard facts to offer the intensely interesting (yes) exhilarations of the long view."—Joan Silber, author of Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories and The Size of the World "One day I will write my last downhill run, not on snow, but on paper. Not today. No. I dance, stop, dance, stop, dance, dance, dance down the mountain."—Kaye Bache-Snyder What sets these writers apart? Until we reach fifty, how we live and write is colored by our futures: those we expect to have and those we imagine. The perspective of the over-fifty writer takes on the hues of both past and future, tinted by memories of first loves, stained by memories of war and loss, and made more poignant by the knowledge that this spring's blooms or this morning's cup of coffee with a beloved husband may be the last and must be savored fully. These essays, stories, and poems were chosen from more than two thousand submissions of previously unpublished work. Some of the contributors—a poet laureate, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, a former foreign correspondent—have long literary histories; others—a social worker, a civil service employee, a clergywoman—began to write later in life. All of them were inspired by a call that asked for fresh and honest writing from the fullness of their lives. Vicky Lettmann, who writes fiction, essays, and poetry, served as an editor for the literary/arts magazines Speakeasy (the Loft Literary Center) and Under Construction (North Hennepin Community College). She received an MFA in fiction writing from Warren Wilson College. Her work has appeared in Twenty-Six Minnesota Writers (Nodin Press) and in Beloved on the Earth: 150 Poems of Grief and Gratitude (Holy Cow! Press). Carol Roan teaches voice and stage presence in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She is the author of Clues to American Dance (Starrhill Press) and Speak Easy: A Guide to Successful Performances, Presentations, Speeches, and Lectures (Starrhill Press), and she writes a column on the "art of performance" for an online 'zine. She won a fellowship to Summer Literary Seminars, Russia, in 2006.
From the author of the Fall 2015 Disney movie The Finest Hours, the “thrilling and perfectly paced” (Booklist) story of the sinking and rescue of Bounty—the tall ship used in the classic 1962 movie Mutiny on the Bounty—which was caught in the path of Hurricane Sandy with sixteen aboard. On Thursday, October 25, 2012, Captain Robin Walbridge made the fateful decision to sail Bounty from New London, Connecticut, to St. Petersburg, Florida. Walbridge knew that a hurricane was forecast, yet he was determined to sail. The captain told the crew that anyone could leave the ship before it sailed. No one took the captain up on his offer. Four days into the voyage, Superstorm Sandy made an almost direct hit on the ship. A few hours later, the ship suddenly overturned ninety miles off the North Carolina coast in the “Graveyard of the Atlantic,” sending the crew tumbling into an ocean filled with towering thirty-foot waves. The coast guard then launched one of the most complex and massive rescues in its history. In the uproar heard across American media in the days following, a single question persisted: Why did the captain decide to sail? Through hundreds of hours of interviews with the crew members and the coast guard, Michael J. Tougias and Douglas A. Campbell create an in-depth portrait of the enigmatic Captain Walbridge, his motivations, and what truly occurred aboard Bounty during those terrifying days at sea. “A white-knuckled, tragic adventure” (Richmond Times-Dispatch), Rescue of the Bounty is an unforgettable tale about the brutality of nature and the human will to survive.
Rescued tells the inspiring stories of dedicated organizations and heroic volunteers who saved animals and reunited them with loved ones after Hurricane Katrina. Heart-wrenching experiences and dramatic action photos open a portal into the unheralded world of animal shelters, sanctuaries, and charities that are emerging nationwide and becoming an important social movement. Chock-full of lifesaving information, this book prepares you to quickly and safely evacuate with animals in any emergency.
THE LATE FRED ROGERS, BELOVED AND GENTLE HOST OF PBS' Mister Rogers' Neighborhood for over 30 years, once said: "When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'" Helpers and heroes shine brightest in darkness. Disaster Heroes recounts the stories of ordinary men, women, and children who have done extraordinary things to help respond, rebuild, and recover from catastrophes around the world. Did you know it was an American from Pennsylvania who ultimately saved the lives of 33 Chilean miners in 2010? Or that the state of Louisiana donated a fire truck, the Spirit of Louisiana, to FDNY following 9/11, all because of a spur-of-the-moment outburst from one Louisiana man? Or that a landscaper from Florida helped save thousands of lives after the 2010 Haiti earthquake? Former journalist Suzanne Bernier, now an award-winning crisis management consultant, instructor and speaker, was first inspired to write Disaster Heroes while participating in her first New Orleans volunteer rebuilding effort following Hurricane Katrina. After hearing so many inspirational stories of help, hope, and healing, she decided to find and profile everyday heroes involved in responding to some of the world's most significant recent disasters. These stories shine a light on everyday heroes who led and inspired others following disasters such as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the Chilean mine collapse, the Haiti earthquake, and the Japan tsunami. Many of these stories cross cultures, countries, and continents, highlighting the fact that there are no borders when it comes to helping others. We're all in this together. Regardless of our background, where we're from, or what we do for a living, these inspiring stories remind us that there's a hero in each of us.
375 exciting tales of heroism and tragedy drawn from the nearly 150,000 search and rescue missions carried out by the National Park Service since 1872.
