Deborah Hopkinson

As a hur­ri­cane gath­ered in the Caribbean, blue skies cov­ered Galve­ston, Texas. Sci­en­tists knew a storm was com­ing. But none of them were able to pre­pare Galve­ston for the force of the hur­ri­cane that hit on Sep­tem­ber 8, 1900.

The water from the storm surge pulled hous­es off their foun­da­tions, and the winds top­pled tele­phone poles and trees like tooth­picks. And amid the chaos, Galve­ston’s res­i­dents did all they could to res­cue one another.

From the mete­o­rol­o­gists track­ing the storm, to the ordi­nary peo­ple who dis­played extra­or­di­nary brav­ery … from the inequitable effects of the dis­as­ter, to a focus on many of the most severe hur­ri­canes that have struck our shores, to the sci­ence of hur­ri­canes and weath­er: Deb­o­rah Hop­kin­son brings voic­es from his­to­ry to life in this fast-paced, wide-rang­ing nar­ra­tive of the dead­liest hur­ri­canes in Amer­i­can his­to­ry. Filled with more than 50 peri­od pho­tographs and illus­tra­tions, charts, facts, and pull-out box­es for eager non­fic­tion readers.