Reviews (7)

The best book ever written about tornadoes
Interesting, enlightening and useful are only a few of the adjectives that describe this book. It has everything from exciting stories to amazing facts. While the book includes many incredible photographs, they are intended to educate rather than just inspire awe. Whether you are interested in storm chasing or just want to recognize and protect your family from dangerous weather formations, this is the book for you. It truly has truly something for just about everyone from the light browser to the seasoned chaser. This is a book that everyone in tornado-prone areas should have as a reference!

Great for beginner storm chasers or Midwest residents.
Well, it's not quite everything, but if you live in the Midwest you should really consider getting this book, whether it be used or new. It offers many different images as far as storm structures, tornado structures and clouds.

Diagrams are offered for 1) viewing the inside of a "worst-first" thunderstorm, 2) viewing the inside of a "worst-last" thunderstorm, 3) inside a tornado, 4) two pages of drawings of different "breeds" of tornadoes, 5) damage paths with debris location, etc.

There are small side notes on almost every page including "weird" information, myths, quick reference, highlights and checklists.

As for beginning chasers or settled chasers with bad luck (such as I), this is a great book to get started with. Aside from Arjen and Jerrine talking about one specific storm that spawned two tornadoes, you'll also learn about "The Storm Environment" (p.68). The Storm Environment explains the different types of clouds that are present with storms and what to expect with them. This section lasts two pages. The "Weather Words" section will get you up to date on your vocabulary used throughout the book. Although there are no scientific words that you'll never understand written throughout the book at all, it does contain words like aloft, updraft, downdraft, inflow, outflow and core. If you're unfamiliar with these words (or you simply think you know what they mean) this could come in handy. A small section is given to weather offices, such as SKYWARN and CANWARN.

This book will also describe to you the difference between a tornado, twister, funnel, funnel cloud, wall cloud, etc. Some of them have no differences at all, even though they are thought to have different meanings.

So far, I have only gotten through the two chapters focusing on Severe Storms and Tornadoes. I'll be back to update the review after I've gotten through the entire book. Enjoy!

Pleasantly written, diverse & well-illustrated tornado tome

Although the authors are Canadian, and aim the book at an audience north of the U.S., American weather enthusiasts and anyone wondering about tornadoes will soak this up. "Under the Whirlwind" is a solid work overall; and for a self-published book, it is amazingly informative and accurate. Readers may be as surprised at the Verkaiks' insight into severe storms issues, since they are not meteorologists. However, their devotion to learning scientific concepts, combined with their extensive storm observing experience and conversational writing style, allows them to succeed with this book. Although the reading is light in a purely technical sense, I found only a few typos and insignificant errors. More important are the clear messages of practicality, realism, education and compassion in the book -- which includes numerous suvivors' tales as well as segments on insurance coverage and helping children to deal with storm-related tragedy. The authors convey a wise message of safety and responsibility as well, for example: "After damaging tornadoes strike there are usually calls for better alert systems -- more bells and whistles.... But the best warning you can have comes from keeping your eye on the sky."

The illustrations are numerous and excellent, without peer in popular severe weather literature. Their deep artistic and educational appreciation for the wonders of a stormy sky pours forth in the form of dozens of full-color photos -- many consisting of spectacular storm structure scenes taken on their forays to the American Great Plains. These aren't presented just to show off the Verkaiks' mastery of storm photography, but to aid in interpreting cloud features. There are also several interesting, high-quality, contributed photos of Canadian tornadoes which never have been published before. The Verkaiks richly endow the volume with drawings, tables and color graphs as well, including numerous inset trivia boxes scattered throughout the book related to debunked tornado myths and tornado oddities.

Because this hasn't been a widely advertised book or peddled by a major publishing house since its 1997 debut, it may go under the radar, so to speak. But it is well worth the cost for students and general audiences curious about the mysteries of tornadoes.

It was the best book I have ever read on the subject.
Under The Whirlwind is, one of the best books about tornadoes available. By reading the book, you will gain an amazing amount of knowledge, and be able to look at the sky with amazement and knowledge about what you see happening. It explains everything you ever wanted or need to know about severe weather and tornadoes, and it is written in understandable terms. Buy this book, and impress your friends with your knowledge of the stormy sky!

This is the best Ontario tornado book out there!
I am very pleased with this book. It gives great in-depth detail about what a victim goes through during a tornado, how to read the stormy sky, about the tornadoes in Ontario, and what to do after a tornado. I have personally met the authors.

~Laura Duchesne (Storm Chaser) ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Philosophy and Mathematics Rolled in One
Gordon Woo has written an elegant account of the impact of natural disasters in today's world, and the mathematical tools we have available for their prediction, mitigation and avoidance.He has drawn upon his theoretical physics background to discuss all major factors that have to be considered when quantitatively evaluating the likelihood and consequences of natural disasters.It is obvious he has read extensively not only the various methods available to engineers, scientists and financiers to avoid natural risks, but also the plethora of philosophical literature contributing to this field of study.It is an excellent account and can be enjoyed by those without an implicit understanding of mathematics, although some understanding adds to the experience.I look forward to his next book. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Excellent Resource On Florida Hurricanes
What a great book. We've enjoyed the stories of the memorable storms like Donna, Andrew, and Opal and the effect theyve had on generations of Florida residents. The 1926 Miami and 1928 Okeechobee are well covered. Also very interesting reading on those storms we've never heard of. The photographs are stunning-and frightening. Its organized well, and the reading is not too technical. It stays on our coffee table.

Finally, a comprehensive collection of Florida storms.
Great photos, and all the detail you could ever want on Florida hurricanes. The survival stories are frightening! All the weather data is there. It's a great resource for us hurricane junkies! ... Read more

Book Description

Fifty years after Isaac's Storm, a riveting story of the first Hurricane Hunters, and the one crew who paid the ultimate price. In September 1955, Navy Lieutenant Commander Grover B. Windham and a crew of eight flew out of Guantanamo Bay into the eye of Hurricane Janet swirling in the Caribbean: a routine weather reconnaissance mission from which they never returned. In the wake of World War II, the Air Force and the Navy had discovered a new civilian arena where daring pilots could test their courage and skill. These Hurricane Hunters flew into raging storms to gauge their strength and predict their paths. Without computer, global positioning, or satellite support, they relied on rudimentary radar systems to locate the hurricane's eye and estimated the drift of their aircraft by looking at windblown waves below. Drawing from Navy documents and interviews with members of the squadron and relatives of the crew, Stormchasers reconstructs the ill-fated mission of Windham's crew from preflight checks to the chilling moment of their final transmission. 16 pages of b/w photographs. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Final Mission
In late September 1955, a tropical depression in the Caribbean became the 10th hurricane of the season--Janet. The Naval Air Station in Jacksonville followed standard procedure, sending out hurricane hunters from Gauantanamo Bay, Cuba, on what should have been a routine reconnaisance mission. But Lt. Cmdr. Grover Windham and his crew of eight never returned from their flight into the eye of the storm. What happened?

Toomey recounts the possible scenarios as he reconsiders the drama, but he also uses the tragedy to discuss the relatively
primitive state of weather prediction at the time.

There was no Doppler radar, no satellite imaging, no global-positioning systems. The twin-engine Neptune plane was outfitted witht he cutting-edge technology of the day---butu meterologists used pencil and paper to make graphs, and pilots still looked at the waves below to estimate their position.

Crew Five really didn't know what it would find with Hurricane Janet. It's final radio transmission at 8:30 a.m. ended, "Beginning penetration."

In the face of daunting odds and tremendous danger....
David Toomey's well researched book has an astounding wealth of information that is both stunning in detail and fascinating in every aspect. This book drew my attention because of my own obsession with hurricanes, having been through several in North Carolina,(to include Fran, Bonnie,and Floyd ). During Floyd we were in the eye of the storm at night and went out and looked up into a clear, silent sky and watched as suddenly a hurricane hunter flew overhead, the only sound at all.
David Toomey details the thoughts that went into the changing views of weatheras a philosophy and the evolution into the science of meteorology. This transformation from philosophy to science is interesting. Weather phenomena was thought to be only a local event and the idea that weather traveled from one area to another was not even imagined. The idea of weather patterns was a foreign concept as well. Toomey details this transformation which spans the continents, including battles of very differing ideas. The leap in the quantity of scientific data and reliability of it's use from the the 1950's to present time is amazing.
This scientific evolution was also a big push in the development of computers, originally called a "calculating clock"(in 1623), then "stepped reckoner" (1673), and then a giant leap to the "Difference Engine" in the 1830's. This subject in and of itself would have been a great subject.
Throughout all of this history of meteorology, the key aspect of this book centers on the people that flew into the hurricanes to obtain the data that would revolutionize hurricane forecasting. Their lives are opened and the picture that is viewed is of normal, everyday men. They saw their mission in life and pursued it, even in the face of daunting odds and tremendous danger. David Toomey has written a book that covers the world of hurricanes from the science to the very human and intimate aspects that surround them and has done so in a way that both educates and captivates your attention.

Stormchasers
This glimpse into 1940's and 50's Navy airmen's exploration of hurricanes is fascinating reading, from a scientific and a human perspective. I've never read nonfiction that captured my imagination and attention so well. It's amazing to me that this story hadn't been told before. How did we come this far into the space age without knowing that people have been flying into hurricanes to study them since the 1940's? And why did those particular people believe they could, without sophisticated instruments, fly into hurricanes and come out again? This book provides suspense while informing the reader of historic events surrounding the world of weather forecasting. I look forward to reading what David Toomey writes next.

Weather Tragedy and History
Before satellite weather photos, the main way of getting information on Atlantic and Caribbean hurricanes was to fly airplanes into them. It is still being done, for it is still the best means for getting the exact location of a hurricane and details such as its speed and direction. In the more than half century of countless such patrols, only one aircraft and crew have been lost. Their story is told in _Stormchasers: The Hurricane Hunters and Their Fateful Flight into Hurricane Janet_ (Norton) by David Toomey. Toomey has gone back to look at Navy documents, interviewed members of the former Weather Reconnaissance Squadron to which the flight belonged, and talked with members of the crew's families. The book has a framework of a reconstruction of the mission of the September 1955 flight, and does so with as much detail as could possibly be gathered so many years on. The story might in itself be a little thin, but Toomey has as well given a broader picture of the history of hurricane science and general meteorology.

Reports of hurricanes at sea began to become practical after ships got radios; the first wireless report of a hurricane was in 1909. The program of reporting storms was a victim of its own success; ships' captains so well knew the danger of hurricanes that one report would send all ships steaming away from the source, making further data collection impossible. No one seriously proposed flying an airplane into a hurricane, because no one knew what such a flying environment would be like. The first flight into a hurricane was performed on a bet, in 1943, and afterwards other pilots wanted to try, and meteorological data started being taken. By 1955, the Weather Bureau, Navy, and Air Force had been sending official flights into massive storms for about a decade. The mission led by Navy Lieutenant Commander Grover B. Windham into the dangers of Hurricane Janet in the Caribbean took place in a PV2 Neptune, which looked a little like the legendary B-17, and could take a similar amount of punishment. Toomey has recreated the flight from its beginning, out of the base at Guantanamo. He can only speculate about its end; there was a final transmission from the plane, "Beginning penetration," which meant they were entering the storm. No trace of the plane or crew was ever found, and Toomey has written three possible fatal outcomes.

The details of the flight itself are well presented (and may well remind readers of The Perfect Storm), but the digressions into the important history of meteorology are fascinating. We are invited to admire that genius of amateur science, Benjamin Franklin, who noted in 1743 that a storm seemed to have tracked from Philadelphia to Boston, and who was the first to speculate that such storms travel along the country but contain winds different from their overall direction of movement. There were attempts in the last century to track a hurricane by seismograph. The reduced pressure would lift up the Earth's crust of the ocean floor, and there was some success in triangulating earthquake-type shifts detected at different stations. We no longer call hurricanes exclusively by women's names, but even in 1955, the practice was not uncontroversial. Forecasters excused themselves by saying that "like women, every hurricane is different, they are generally unpredictable, and they can make men feel small and inconsequential." Besides, no flier wanted to declare that he had "penetrated Charlie;" but in 1979, men's names started being used as well. _Stormchasers_ nicely contrasts chapters recounting the sad fate of the fliers into hurricane Janet with chapters containing an often inspiring story of scientific enquiry.

"Stormchaser" needs a "Wordchaser"
For anyone who has ever been fascinated by airplanes, by meteorology, by weird and anomalous weather, "Stormchasers" is an excellent read. And for anyone who has ever been fascinated by weird and anomalous proofreading, it's even better. It all began to unravel on page 49 when I was told of the airplane "hangers" being constructed in Jacksonville. My first image was of gigantic wire objects on which airframes were hung to keep from wrinkling. When the word appeared again a few pages later, I finally checked my dictionary, aware that words sometimes become part of the language through years of misuse. Such was not the case. Apparently the proofreader figured this out after a while too, for as the book moved forward, "hangers" transmogrified into "hangars" and all was well. Except, later, in reference to the hurricane hunters, I was told that no one's interest had been "peaked." And all the time I kept saying to myself, "poor David Toomey." Here's a man whose powers of research and attention to detail seem inexhaustible, whose ability to reconstruct the events of that day (as well as the hundreds of years of storm study that preceded it) are beyond dispute, but whose reputation is ambushed at every turn by sloppy proofreading.

The book, in the end, is excellent, both dramatically and scientifically. We gain an intimate knowledge of the plane's crew while being schooled in the history of modern (and sometimes ancient) meteorology. Best of all, Toomey clearly delineates life inside a P2V Neptune flying through the wall and eye of an Atlantic hurricane; and even though the title divulges the ending, it does not diminish the tension or suspense. I have been a weather "fan" all my life, but I found it humbling to learn just how little I actually know about the atmosphere. This a five-star book in every area but one, and that one is hardly the author's fault. Even though this may not be a cliffHANGER, "Stormchasers" will PIQUE your interest from the start. ... Read more

Book Description

The first half of the 1990s have seen the largest and most costly floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes in the history of the United States. While natural hazards cannot be prevented, their human impacts can be greatly reduced through advance action that mitigates risks and reduces vulnerability.

Natural Hazard Mitigation describes and analyzes the way that hazard mitigation has been carried out in the U.S. under our national disaster law, the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act. It is the first systematic study of the complete intergovernmental system for natural hazard mitigation, including its major elements and the linkages among them.

The book:

• analyzes the effectiveness of the Stafford Act and investigates what is contained in state hazard mitigation plans required by the Act
• studies how federal hazard mitigation funds have been spent
• explores what goes into decision making following a major disaster
• looks at how government mitigation officials rate the effectiveness of the mitigation system
• suggests changes that could help solve the widely recognized problems with current methods of coping with disasters

Damages from natural disasters are reaching catastrophic proportions, making natural hazard mitigation an important national policy issue. The findings and recommendations presented in this volume should help to strengthen natural hazard mitigation policy and practice, thereby serving to reduce drains on the federal treasury that pay for preventable recovery and relief costs, and to spare residents in areas hit by natural disasters undue suffering and expense. It is an informative and eye-opening study for planners, policy-makers, students of planning and geography, and professionals working for government agencies that deal with natural hazards. ... Read more

Book Description

Flash floods spread violence and fear over the land. And yet, they sometimes bring peace and grace. You will meet survivors whose stories explain such a paradox. Gripping stories of five flash floods that raged in the Grand Canyon and elsewhere in Arizona within a two-month span and killed 22 people. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Narrative Nonficiton At Its Best
While on a recent trip to Anza Borrego Desert State Park, I saw The Desert Cries: A season of Flash Floods in a Dry Land on the shelf in the visitor center. Since I knew a thing or two about flash floods, I flipped through the book. Yikes. I was in it, and it wasn't an entirely flattering depiction. But of course, I had to buy the book. That night, while camped in a desert wash, I read The Desert Cries by flashlight. "This is good!" I said to my husband who was waiting for me to stop reading so I would turn off the headlamp and he could get some sleep. The book was too suspenseful to put down.
In this harrowing tail of nature's beauty and wrath, Craig Childs vividly depicts the fates of people whose lives have been changed forever by five flash floods. Unfortunately, not all of them make it out alive. The illustrator, Regan Choi, provides grim and shadowy views that supplement the stories well. Even if you've never seen a flash flood, you will have "felt" one by the time you finish this book. The author's fine balance between detail and drama builds a cinematic tension that both satisfies and horrifies. Set in the stunning landscapes of the Southwest, these stories are outdoor adventure narrative at its best. And they are all true. ... Read more

Book Description

Practical information about dangers around the world.

Instant communication from around the world has raised the level of interest in global hazards. Natural disasters receive immediate coverage, and in some cases their effects can be felt across continents.

This book is a compelling, richly illustrated guide to the many large-scale natural disasters that affect and afflict life on Earth -- both globally and locally. Written in clear, understandable terms, Firefly Guide to Global Hazards is essential reading for anyone interested in or concerned about the environment, geophysics and political affairs. The book provides concise descriptions of all types of hazards and the threats they pose.

Some of the global hazards covered are: - Earthquakes, volcanoes, fires - Flooding, coastal erosion, tsunami - Hurricanes, tornadoes, winds - Avalanches, landslides, snow and ice - Desertification, drought, famine, diseases - Pollution, ozone depletion, global warming - Comets, meteorites, mass extinctions

The book uses case histories to explain the causes, effects and some of the solutions for each hazard or disaster. Illustrated with 200 color photographs and drawings and more than 100 maps, charts, tables and diagrams, this book is an encyclopedia for the curious and the concerned. ... Read more

Book Description

During the summer of 2000, Americans from coast to coast witnessed the worst fire season in recorded history. Daily news reports brought dramatic images of vast swaths of land going up in smoke, from the mountains of Montana and Wyoming, to the scrublands of Texas, to Los Alamos, New Mexico, where a controlled burn gone awry threatened forests, homes, and even our nation's nuclear secrets. As they have for centuries, wildfires captured our attention and our imagination, reminding us of the power of the natural forces that shape our world.

In Wildfire: A Reader nature writer and wildland firefighter Alianor True gathers together for the first time some of the finest stories and essays ever written about wildfire in America. From Mark Twain to Norman Maclean to Edward Abbey, writers featured here depict and record wildfires with remarkable depth and clarity. An ecological perspective is well represented through the works of John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and John McPhee. Ed Engle, Louise Wagenknecht, and Gretchen Yost, firefighters from the front lines, give us exciting first-person perspectives, reliving their on-the-ground encounters with forest fires.

The works gathered in Wildfire not only explore the sensory and aesthetic aspects of fire, but also highlight how much attitudes have changed over the past 200 years. From Native Americans who used fire as a tool, to early Americans who viewed it as a frightening and destructive force, to Aldo Leopold and other conservationists whose ideas caused us to rethink the value and role of fire, this rich collection is organized around those shifts in thinking.

Capturing the fury and the heat of a raging inferno, or the quiet emergence of wildflowers sprouting from ashes, the writings included in Wildfire represent a vital and compelling addition to the nature writing and natural history bookshelf. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

well worth the read
An outstanding collection of essays on wildfire and fire ecology, this book put many of my own ill-formed ideas and smoky musing into clear, engaging words. I recommend reading the latter essays first, which vividly bring the out magic of firefighting and fire use in modern life and conservation. The essay by the editor (True) is a wonderful description of how being a firefighter changed her perceptions of nature (as it did for me and so many others as well); the essay on "pride and glory" reveals what many in fire feel but are often reluctant to reveal; the essay on Cerro Grande taught me a few things I didn't know about that fire; the contributions from the two MacLeans (father and son) are excellent excerpts from their respective books on wildland firefighting (both MUST READS in their own right); and of course good ole Ed Abbey--always ready with a sweet one-liner or two--has some wonderful sections from his life as a fire lookout. Some of the early essays are not nearly as engaging, and might be of limited interest; this is the only reason I gave it four instead of five stars.

If you are fascinated at all with the world of wildland fire, get this book. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

What could be safer than Grand Forks, North Dakota, settled on the vast, flat plain of the Red River? There'd be no danger unless the whole town went under water. But in April 1997 that is precisely what happened. Flood Stage and Rising tells the story of that month-long disaster from the point of view of one who lived through it-fighting the flood shoulder-to-shoulder with her neighbors, watching in horror as the water breaks the dikes, fleeing the city only to see, via newscasts, her town burst into flames at the height of the flood-and finally working to put her own and Grand Fork's life back together.

As she chronicles North Dakota's disastrous winter and spring-and the tortuous recovery process that continues to this day-Jane Varley gives us a shocking, moving picture of the reality behind the headline news that riveted the nation. A gifted poet and essayist, Varley has crafted a first-rate adventure narrative that is also a love story about a particular place and time, infused with her passion for the natural world, a curiosity about rivers and remote landscapes, and a need for meaning. Her story culminates a life of travels that prepared her-and prepares us-for what we see in North Dakota as the lake bed of the Red River Valley refills with water like a ghost of its ancient past. Jane Varley teaches writing at Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A Beautifully Written Story
This book is an amazing story of the beauty and strength of nature.Though written as a narrative, the language is beautifully poetic.The author is a fantastic story teller, and shares a personal account of an incredible event.

Why Do We Live Here?
This is a question that Jane Varley probes in Flood Stage and Rising. It is thrilling and fascinating that she is writing about midwesterners, and more specifically, Grand Forksians, inhabitants of this Red River Valley---but Varley's explorations in this work move well beyond our area, begging everyone to look closely at their surroundings and experience a sense of place more fully.

Every other chapter in Flood Stage and Rising is about Varley's experiences during the 1997 Grand Forks flood. The other chapters reveal her connections to water, particularly rivers, over the course of her life. She was born during an April flood in Dubuque and in the chapter describing it says, "I was born from water into water."

As a newcomer to North Dakota, Varley maintains a compelling distance from her topic, offering us a view of ourselves that is rich in familiar phrases ("Forty below keeps the riff raff out"), accents ("Ya got cherself in a spot there, didn't cha?") and ways of life ("In Minnesota, kindness can be an urgent business"). Yet Varley reminds us of her transient status: "Was the flood helping me know this place better or preventing me from knowing it, spurring on the feeling that I should leave and find new territory?"

It's a question we ask ourselves: Why do we live here? Varley will not answer this question for you, or even really for herself. You will not want her to; you will read the book and ask questions of yourself, your home, your memories, your observations, and your thoughts. As I stated earlier, people from all parts of the country will relate to and enjoy this book, and we owe an extra thanks to Varley for reminding us where we've been, making us put aside the jokes about living in North Dakota long enough to truly appreciate our own stories. "The stories reveal who we are, full of words, ready to say what happened to us, as well as silent, turning back to the cold muck of a basement, reaching in and ordering a new kind of life."
... Read more

Reviews (2)

Good Mitigation Textbook
I found this book provides a very good overview of natural hazards mitigation. It gives practitioners research information they can use when tasked to build mitigation programs for their communities. Bridging this communication gap between practitioners and researcher has long been a mission of mine. This book is the designated textbook for a mitigation class I teach. The section on Preparedness, Response and Recovery provided a very good assessment of how organizations approach disaster management. I recommend this book for any disaster practictioner's library.

Great book for disaster researchers
This is the follow up assessment for Gilbert White's 1975 Natural Hazards assessment. It discusses where the US is currently in regards to hazards and how to address them in a number of specific areas including mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery, vulnerability and many other topics. I would strongly encourage reading it whether you areonly interested in disasters or a full time researcher. ... Read more

Book Description

Biologist and fire ecologist Richard W. Halsey, with contributions from many other experts, has woven together the crucial elements of fire behavior, land management, and knowledge of the natural environment to help Californians better protect their families and form vital connections with their surroundings. With a detailed description of the chaparral plant community and a full-color field reference to its most common plants and animals, Halsey provides an essential guide to Southern California’s most extensive and characteristic wilderness. Special contributors include wildland fire and chaparral specialists Jon E. Keeley, CJ Fotheringham, and Max A. Moritz, wildland resource scientist Klaus W.H. Radtke, National Park Service scientists Marti Witter and Robert Taylor, geographer Michael Wangler, and botanists Anne Fege and Bill Howell with the San Diego Natural History Museum. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great stuff
Finally a book on California wildfires that tells it like it is. Great natural history stuff too. Maybe now the public will wake up. Here's a review from the San Diego Union. It's accurate.

A biologist challenges common wisdom in 'Fire, Chaparral, and Survival in Southern California'

Reviewed by Terry Rodgers
February 6, 2005
San Diego Union-Tribune

Biologist and fire ecologist Richard W. Halsey sees ample evidence that Southern Californians simply don't get it.

Surrounded by a highly flammable chaparral landscape, we insist on building housing in inappropriate locations that are impossible to defend against wildfires. When the inevitable happens, we expect firefighters to accomplish the impossible by saving every structure, no matter how stupidly constructed. In the fire's aftermath, there's a clamor for more equipment, more choppers, more air tankers.

The public believes chaparral wildfires whipped up by Santa Ana winds can be easily subdued by a bigger, better-equipped army of firefighters. Using tragedy to push a political agenda, some try to blame the fires' destruction on the chaparral itself and those who favor open space conservation.

In "Fire, Chaparral, and Survival in Southern California," Halsey directly challenges the common wisdom that has fostered the pattern of tail-chasing after every wildfire disaster.

This is an interesting and important book that could dispel the public's misperceptions and improve public policy to minimize death and destruction from wildfires. Halsey forces the reader to rethink how mankind should live in Southern California's estimated 8.6 million acres of chaparral. He makes the case that much can be done through better land-use planning, improved building codes and a renewed vigilance on the part of homeowners.

"Past fire suppression practices or environmental regulations limiting vegetation treatments in wild spaces cannot be blamed for the wildfires we see today," he writes. "We must recognize fire will always be part of the California experience, with or without chaparral."

The initial chapters read like a chaparral-habitat field guide, before the book switches abruptly to Halsey's intriguing treatise on wildfire management, including lessons learned from the catastrophic wildfires of 2003.

The early chapters are worthwhile for amateur naturalists or natural history guides seeking a comprehensive understanding of chaparral ecology. Like the Golden State's once-robust population of grizzly bears, native chaparral and its cousin habitat, coastal sage scrub, are being systematically eliminated. For too long, the beauty and utility of the chaparral have been underappreciated. These plant communities are crucial to a healthy watershed that deters erosion and provide habitat for wildlife.

While it's true that periodic fires are healthy for chaparral, humans have increased the frequency of wildfires. Such overburning allows non-native grasses and other plants to take over.

"Considering development, increased fire frequency and the possibility of continued drought conditions, the future (of chaparral) looks extremely difficult," Halsey writes.

Much of the book is a how-to manual for homeowners who wish to create a reasonable defense against wildfire. Halsey argues that, rather than rely on firefighters to come to their rescue, homeowners need to be more savvy about how they prepare for the fires. They can create "survivable spaces" with intelligent (not clear-cut) brush clearing along with on-site measures such as misters under vulnerable wooden eaves.

The author supports his theories with a collection of interviews and anecdotes of residents and firefighters who have first-hand experience battling wildfires.

"What had become clear after the 2003 firestorm is that people had become so unfamiliar with the environment in which they lived and so dependent on outside assistance that they had lost control of their own lives," he writes. "They had neglected to prepare for the inevitable." ... Read more

Book Description

Engaging historical narrative covering many significant events in the history of south Florida, including the major developments and setbacks in the early years of Miami and Key West, as well as an in-depth look at Henry Flagler’s amazing Overseas Railway.

This well-written history tells the story of the dramatic battle between human ambition and the reality of the West Indian hurricane. By 1935, at least, the hurricane had won. Includes gripping narratives of the 1919, 1926, and 1935 hurricanes in south Florida and the Keys. ... Read more

Book Description

The wildfires that spread across Southern California in the fall of 2003 were devastating in their scale-twenty-two deaths, thousands of homes destroyed and many more threatened, hundreds of thousands of acres burned. What had gone wrong? And why, after years of discussion of fire policy, are some of America's most spectacular conflagrations arising now, and often not in a remote wilderness but close to large settlements?

That is the opening to a brilliant discussion of the politics of fire by one of the country's most knowledgeable writers on the subject, Stephen J. Pyne. Once a fire fighter himself (for fifteen seasons, on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon) and now a professor at Arizona State University, Pyne gives us for the first time a book-length discussion of fire policy, of how we have come to this pass, and where we might go from here.

Tending Fire provides a remarkably broad, sometimes startling context for understanding fire. Pyne traces the "ancient alliance" between fire and humanity, delves into the role of European expansion and the creation of fire-prone public lands, and then explores the effects wrought by changing policies of "letting burn" and suppression. How, the author asks, can we better protect ourselves against the fires we don't want, and better promote those we do?

Pyne calls for important reforms in wildfire management and makes a convincing plea for a more imaginative conception of fire, though always grounded in a vivid sense of fire's reality. "Amid the shouting and roar, a central fact remains," he writes. "Fire isn't listening. It doesn't feel our pain. It doesn't care-really, really doesn't care. It understands a language of wind, drought, woods, grass, brush, and terrain, and it will ignore anything stated otherwise."

Rich in insight, wide-ranging in its subject, and clear-eyed in its proposals, Tending Fire is for anyone fascinated by fire, fire policy, or human culture.

Book Description

Volcanoes, earthquakes, and giant killer tidal waves called tsunamis . . . We think of these events as disasters, but for Earth they are merely business as usual.This dramatically illustrated book describes some of the more than 3,000 active volcanoes scattered around the planet, and chronicles many of history's most devastating volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tidal waves. The author explains that volcanoes and earthquakes both result from movement of the Earth's vast tectonic plates, and are most likely to occur at or near places where two or more plates come together. Such movement has been going on since the Earth's origins, creating mountain ranges and dividing the landmass into separate continents. Described in these pages are volcanic blasts from the past: Vesuvius, Italy in 79 A.D. ... Laki, Iceland in 1783 ... Tambora, Indonesia in 1815 ... Krakatoa, Indonesia in 1883 ... Mount St. Helens, Washington State in 1980 ... Pinatubo, the Philippines in 1991, and others. Also chronicled are earthquakes that have struck large population centers, producing disasters in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1755, San Francisco in 1906, Tokyo-Yokohama, Japan, in 1923, and Kobe, Japan, in 1995. The Earth's major trouble spots and likely targets for future earthquakes are described. Urban areas in greatest danger continue to be those along the Pacific Rim, which encompasses North America's West Coast and most of Japan's cities. Here is an intensely readable summary of natural disasters that have struck the earth, along with informed speculation on how and when similar events will recur in the future. More than 200 color illustrations. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A splendid guide to tectonic hazards
This book is a five-star summation of the numerous tectonic hazards faced by human civilization. It is impressively written and contains numerous, informative color photographs and diagrams. Each discussion is separated and encapsulated into a mini-chapter; a format I find facilitates depth of understanding. Target Earth!, by Duncan Steel, covering impact hazards from asteroids and comets, is similarly well organized.

The book is very up-to-date in terms of the science involved. The discusssion of the mega-tsunami hazard from La Palma volcano in the Canary Islands is especially impressive, and frightening.
The entire United States East Coast is threatened by a landslide and giant tsunami from this volcano. All such cities will be destroyed if the worst case scenario takes place.

While the world very likely is not going to end tomorrow, it can be greatly readjusted by powerful tectonic forces leaving great destruction in their wake. Anyone interested in geology or geophysics, or living in a tectonically active area should read this book closely. The same goes for any coastal dweller, with respect to tsunami threats.

I recommend this book very highly. ... Read more

Book Description

In recent years, the number of presidential declarations of "major disasters" has skyrocketed. Such declarations make stricken areas eligible for federal emergency relief funds that greatly reduce their costs. But is federalizing the costs of disasters helping to lighten the overall burden of disasters or is it making matters worse? Does it remove incentives for individuals and local communities to take measures to protect themselves? Are people more likely to invest in property in hazardous locations in the belief that, if worse comes to worst, the federal government will bail them out?.

Disasters and Democracy addresses the political response to natural disasters, focusing specifically on the changing role of the federal government from distant observer to immediate responder and principal financier of disaster costs. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A "Real-World" Look at U.S. Disaster Policy
Rud Platt is a land use lawyer at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Mr. Platt links the political aspects of U.S. disaster policy with the actual effects of major natural hazard events such as hurricanes, large floods and earthquakes. Based on knowledge gained from observing the response and recovery efforts in several disasters, Platt draws a number of key policy recommendations that are designed to move U.S. disater management policy in a more rational direction. Platt also includes a wealth of information based on interviews with key federal, state and local officials involved with disaster response and recovery. The book includes several very informative case studies provided by contributing authors on topics such as the 1993 Mid-west floods in Missouri.

This book is recommeded for those who want to learn more about this important national topic and those who may be involved in the formulation of future disater management policy at the local, state or national level. ... Read more