Texas Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival

by Mike Cox

Overview

True accounts of major disasters in Texas history are retold in this engagingly written collection. In this part of the country tornadoes are a frequent threat, but in addition to the many violent twisters, Texas residents have experienced fires, floods, drought, blizzards, shipwrecks, and other devastating events, including a yellow fever epidemic in 1867, which earned that year the grim moniker "The Year of Death." Each story reveals not only the circumstances surrounding the disaster and the magnitude of the devastation but also the courage and ingenuity displayed by those who survived and the heroism of those who helped others, often risking their own lives in rescue efforts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493013166
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	07/15/2015
Series:	Disasters Series
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Mike Cox is the author of a dozen books on Texas history and other subjects. He was the communications manager for the Texas Department of Transportation while Texas absorbed hundreds of thousands of evacuees during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Before that, he spent fifteen years with the Texas Department of Public Safety as a public information officer and was a newspaper reporter—all good research for writing about disasters and rescue efforts in Texas.

Read an Excerpt

Just before 6 p.m., a monstrous black cloud dropped from the skies on the south side of town and began its death march across the defenseless city. "The giant tornado was a massive black column extending from the low striated base of the inky clouds to the ground," a National Weather Service report later said. Huge pieces of debris thrown high in the air were clearly visible from miles away as the storm cut a swath of destruction through the city. Eyewitnesses described details of the storm differently, but they were unanimous on one point—it was an awesome, terrifying experience beyond anything they had encountered before. The police officers at Memorial Stadium could attest to that. They watched in horror from outside the stadium press box as the cloud-containing at least five funnels-moved straight toward them. Knowing they could not outrun it, they bolted down the stadium stairs, huddled against a steel stairway railing, locked their arms together, and prayed. One of them later told a reporter that his only prayer was that his body could be identified. The roar of the storm was deafening, and the men were blasted by swirling debris. But then the roar stopped. The mile-wide tornado moved on, looking for more victims, and the police officers were alive. The winds had torn the speakers from their radios, their handcuffs had been sucked out of their leather cases, and their service revolvers had been ripped open. Neuberth's watch had stopped at 6:05.

Table of Contents

(1) Introduction (2) South Padre Island shipwreck, 1544 (3) "Yellow Jack": Yellow fever epidemic, 1867 (4) Indianola hurricanes, 1875 (5) Galveston hurricanes, 1900 (6) Goliad tornado, 1902 (7) Paris burning, 1877 (8) Boiler explosion on locomotive no. 704, 1912 (9) Central Texas flood, 1921 (10) Rocksprings tornado, 1927 (11) New London school explosion, 1937 (12) Houston hotel fire, 1943 (13) Texas City ship explosion, 1947 (14) Waco/San Angelo twisters, 1953 (15) Texas drought, 1950s (16) The blizzard of '56 (17) Disappearance of the Sulphur Queen, 1963 (18) Sanderson flood, 1965 (19) Wichita Falls tornado, 1979 (20) Aviation disasters, 1985-2003 (21) Afterword on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (22) Texas disasters timeline (23) Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

"Texans always pitch in and help each other after a tragedy..."—Mike Cox

From the Publisher