In April 2011 the storm season broke all records across American states. By recreating a superstorm which struck the South from eyewitness accounts, phone and email records, as well as experts on the ground, Kim Cross allows us to participate in the terror.

Meteorologists had warned Alabama in time for alert citizens to take shelter from a half-mile wide storm. Just a few days later they were even more concerned. Supercells fed by heat and moisture were developing. Large hailstones cracked windshields and rivers flooded. Weather broadcaster Jason Simpson was so worried by the figures on his computer screen that he was providing warnings from 4am of April 26th. Another broadcaster on the team, James Spann, was relied upon by many, and he considered it urgent to start delivering warnings of an unusual morning tornado too. While Simpson was on the air, his family farm was hit by a tornado.

With phone networks, weather monitoring equipment and people on the ground incapacitated, the TV station still had to keep warnings going out as the sun rose and pumped more heat into the disastrous situation. Social media and phone-holding spotters were able to provide instant updates, and cell phones informed people whose power lines were downed. I was fascinated by the account of Spann going out to schools all year round, enlisting kids to report, telling them where the safest room is and how to keep informed about the weather rather than rely on sirens. Storm chasers provide the other side of the story. I also enjoyed the history of tornado and thunderstorm science.

We meet the people, many of them women, who were in shops, offices and homes at 3pm as a major storm touched down in a town. They headed home early, took precautions. But when the wind is flinging bulldozers around, smashing homes, banks and churches and ripping them off the ground, can anyone do enough? The account is detailed and devastating. By April 28th, 358 tornadoes had ripped through twenty-one states in three days. 348 people had been killed and many more injured.

While reading the accounts of the storm hitting I was amazed by how strongly I felt the fear and bravery of the people concerned. The second part of the book, dealing with the aftermath, is also harrowing. The entire town of Tuscaloosa is gone, only refrigerators and scattered debris remaining. Hospitals and emergency responders struggle to know who to treat first. FEMA trailers of supplies are swept away. Heroism has already saved lives, and more lives are risked to dig survivors out of wreckage. At the same time I was astonished by incidentals, like a woman donning flip-flops before driving to check on family, when she really needed stout shoes. A much better prepared student wears mountaineering boots. And more storms are coming.

As James Spann explains, the question we should ask is not why storms occur but what we can learn from them. Lives are saved by broadcast warnings and by a prepared populace. We see trained dogs finding bodies in seconds; we see social media providing information and volunteers pouring in to help, including mass cooking. A social site page acts as a lost and found column for storm-tossed belongings. WHAT STANDS IN A STORM, we are shown by Kim Cross, who lives in Birmingham, Alabama and teaches journalism, is the community. At times heart-rending, the gripping, well- written account is a must-read.