F5: Devastating, Survival, and the Most Violent Tornado Outbreak of the Twentieth Century

Even though "F5" begins with what almost seems like a dream sequence--two teenagers in a fire-engine red Mustang are swept up into an eerily silent tornado--its early pages, for the most part, laze through an Alabama spring in rural Limestone County, introducing the future victims of what proved to be one of the most violent tornado outbreaks of the 20th Century. Try not to get too attached to the main characters. Most of their stories have unhappy endings. The sheriff, electrician, farmer, and housewife are battered by an unfathomable force of nature, and some lose everything: house; vehicle; livestock; peach orchard; and worst of all, family and friends. Some of them lose their lives. One unfortunate trailer park was hit by two separate tornadoes half-an-hour apart. The rescue workers who had shown up after the first tornado, had to scramble into a ditch and hang on to mud and weeds as a second vortex filled with razor-sharp scraps of glass and metal roared over their prone bodies. The bloodied sheriff, who "was last into the ditch" was still able to able to stagger up and help other victims, even though he had been pummeled by not one, but two of the tornadoes in the massive storm. The biography of Tetsuya "Ted" Fujita, a University of Chicago meteorologist who devised the standard for measuring the strength of tornadoes is also interwoven into the narrative of the 1974 tornado outbreak. This Japanese (later American) scientist had seen far worse destruction than that caused by an F5 tornado outbreak; in 1945 his government sent Fujita to Nagasaki and Hiroshima to study the aftermath of the nuclear blasts that had annihilated these two cities. If the author seems to portray Fujita as insensitive to the sufferings of the 1974 tornado survivors, one need only recall the horror that he had lived through during and after the war, to realize that his supposed callousness might have been a defense mechanism. Other Americans are drawn into the matrix of Levine's history of 1994: Richard Nixon was expelled from the Presidency. Hank Aaron surpassed Babe Ruth's home run record, in spite of anonymous death threats. But this poet-author is at his best when describing the experiences of the Limestone County men, women, and children who were forcibly pulled into the belly of the monstrous storm. Here his prose becomes blank verse, almost in the style of "Beowulf." Legs are twisted upward until they slam into the victim's head; arms are torn loose and fly away into the low-hanging clouds; intestines are draped into trees. Babies are buried in the mud. In total, there were 148 tornadoes in the April, 1974 super outbreak. Xenia, Ohio might be the most recognizable location to have suffered through the massive storm, but once you have read "F5" you will never forget Limestone County, Alabama.

F5: DEVASTATION, SURVIVAL AND THE MOST VIOLENT TORNADO OUTBREAK OF THE 20TH CENTURY comes from an award-winning magazine writer and is a powerful survey of the 1974 tornado array - some 148 of them - which struck thirteen states in the Midwest and killed hundreds. F5 reads like fiction but packs in science details on the six that achieved F5 force status - the rarest, largest of tornadoes. By including case history vignettes of individuals affected during the storms, F5 pairs science with a personal touch lending it appeal into general interest lending library holdings, where it's sure to be popular. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

I thought this book was a great read because it felt like I was actually witnessing first hand the events of April 3, 1974. Yes, the book does jump around a little bit. It starts off with some foreshadowing and then backtracks to pre-April 3, 1974. The author describes the history and people of Limestone County, Alabama. In addition, there are a few chapters that break up the story, describing the nature of tornadoes and some politcal events of 1974. Also, there are many characters in this book which make various appearances throughout. It may appear to be a bit confusing, but eventually I was able to keep track of who was whom. But the story does wrap up nicely with an epilogue that informs the readers of the present day victims of the "superoutbreak". But beware, this story mostly takes place in Limestone County, Alabama. So don't expect a detailed account of the 148 tornadoes that swepted across the country on April 3-4, 1974

I had been hearing so much about the book and seeing it everywhere, so I thought why not --- and I'm so glad I did. It arrived last weekend and I finished it in 24 hours. What a pageturner...I generally don't have much of an attention span when it comes to books (especially non-fiction) but I just couldn't put this down. It really does read like the best fiction. I'm sure they'll turn this into a movie!

F5 is the designation for the most destructive of tornadoes. Of course, there is plenty of description of destruction in this book. But, what sets this book apart from typical "weather junkie" books is the description of injury and emotional pain. You come to know three good families and some assorted, fascinating people, including a heck of a good county sheriff and a tornado expert who is almost weird, he is so enthusiasic about the storms. You see how some of these people are struck down. You see how the survivors suffer afterwards. F5s are not just destructive. They are horrible. In the book they seem to be almost alive and deliberately attacking the innocent. A hell of a good story of what some people went through thirty years ago.