Nature's Fury: Eyewitness Reports of Natural Disasters

This book is a short 115 pages or so recounting of people's survival experiences of natural disasters all over the U.S. It was written in 2000 so current disasters are not listed. The disasters range from floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes and snow storms and include years 1888, 1900, 1925, 1938, 1974, 1977 up to the 1980 Mt St Helen's volcano eruption. The disasters included hurricanes blizzards, tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts and earthquakes. It is fascinating to realize how much more resilient these people seem than the people today. They didn't whine but got to cleaning up their towns/cities themselves. One town in Alaska completely moved their entire town to another area building the homes themselves. No living in FEMA trailers for 4 years for them. This book explains why earthquakes, floods, etc. occur without getting too much into scientific explanation and it explains what to do and what not to do in case the reader is ever caught in one. Excellent book for children of all ages and adults also. There are no gory pictures just pictures of the actual destruction of buildings, etc. This book teaches readers to RESPECT Mother Nature without giving them nightmares.

The author recounts the events that happened in natural disasters in this book. Aside from merely telling of the disaster, the author includes testimony from actual survivors of the event. Many of these people she interviewed first hand, while others she used portions of letters or diaries that the survivors kept. By doing this, the reader has a sense of what it was like to be present at the time of the disaster. Included are tales of earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, fires, and droughts. The author includes her sources as well as those she suggests for further investigation. Photographs are included of many of the natural disasters and their aftermath.