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The Storm of the Century
Al Roker
Tragedy, Heroism, Survival, and the Epic True Story of America's Deadliest Natural Disaster: The Great Gulf Hurricane of 1900
William Morrow
August 2015
On Sale: August 11, 2015
320 pages ISBN: 0062364650 EAN: 9780062364654 Kindle: B00PQRWKLE Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction History
In this gripping narrative history, the beloved NBC weather
personality vividly brings to life the Great Gulf Hurricane
of 1900, the deadliest natural disaster in American history. On the afternoon of September 8, 1900, 200-mile-per-hour
winds and fifteen-foot waves slammed into Galveston, the
prosperous and growing port city on Texas’s Gulf Coast. By
dawn the next day, when the storm had passed, the city that
existed just hours before was gone. Shattered, grief-stricken survivors emerged to witness a
level of destruction never before seen: 8,000 corpses
littered the streets and were buried under the massive
wreckage. Rushing water had lifted buildings from their
foundations, smashing them into pieces, while intensive
winds had upended girders and trestles, driving them through
house walls and into sidewalks. In less than twenty-four hours, one storm destroyed a major
American metropolis—and awakened a nation to the terrifying
power of nature. The Storm of the Century brings this legendary disaster and
its aftermath into brilliant focus. No other natural
disaster has ever matched the havoc caused by the awesome
mix of winds, rains, and flooding that devastated this
bustling metropolis and shocked a young, optimistic nation
on the cusp of modernity. Exploring the impact of the disaster on a rising nation’s
confidence—the pain and trauma of the loss and the
determination of the response—Al Roker illuminates both the
energy and the limitations of the American Century, and of
nature itself.
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