Zeitoun

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers is the true story of one family's experiences in and around Hurricane Katrina.

Nola residents Kathy and Abdulrahman Zeitoun own and run a construction and painting company. They are known as good neighbors and loving parts of Syrian Muslim community. 

When the news starts talking of a storm headed toward New Orleans, Kathy decides to take the children to a relative's house farther inland. Zeitoun stays to watch the house and be available for their customers' needs. 

After weathering the storm with some leaks, water starts slowly flooding in. Zeitoun moves everything he can upstairs to keep it dry. He takes a used canoe out of the garage and ties it to the from porch. 

After the flooding, Zeitoun uses his canoe to search for people who need help. He finds one of their buildings that still have phone services and keeps in touch with Kathy. 

Then random police from all over the country arrive, volunteering to "protect the city" from looters. Zeitoun, his building tenant, an acquaintance from their mosque, and a stranger are all arrested. Having identification showing that be belongs has no effect. 

What follows is one of the failures of FEMA and law enforcement. Read this book. It is important to see what really goes on in times of chaos. 

Eggers, Dave. (2009). Zeitoun. New York: McSweeny's Books.

The Ship and the Storm

The Ship and the Storm: Hurricane Mitch and the Loss of the Fantome by Jim Carrier is the story of a category 5 hurricane that destroyed much of the Caribbean in 1998.

The Windjammer Barefoot Cruise ship Fantome was a popular sailing ship in the eastern Caribbean run by a charismatic captain. Many of the passengers became Windjammer fans for life and booked multiple cruises on the 1927 tall ship.

In many ways this book is an update in weather science and knowledge from the book Isaac's Storm which tells of a hurricane that hit Galveston, Texas in 1900. And in spite of 100 years of progress, determining the course and strength of a tropical storm is still not exact.

The unpredictable nature of Mitch combined with a fairly trapped position for a ship of its size caught the Fantome in a terrible position with nowhere to shelter. Trying to run from the storm to open sea, but being followed by the storm resulted in the loss of the ship and all 31 crew when the eye of Mitch hovered over the island of Guanaja for 27 hours.

Carrier wrote an easily readable narrative nonfiction book filled with both personal accounts and science of weather. Anyone who has lived where hurricanes flourish would relate to the tales in this book. And weather nerds will love it.

Carrier, Jim. (2001). The Ship and the Storm. New York: Harvest Books.

Isaac's Storm

Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson is the story of man's quest to understand (and conquer) weather.

In September 1900 a massive hurricane hit Galveston, Texas killing over 6000 people and destroying most of the island. At the time, the US Weather Bureau was not doing much more than recording daily weather around the country. It was not issuing predictions or forecasts because of past criticism. So even though there was some forewarning in the skies around Cuba and in the view from the shore of Galveston, the people were not told of a likely coming disaster.

Larson uses the 1900 Galveston Hurricane (they were not yet given names unless someone famous was associated with them) as the focal point to look back and forward in time in man's struggle to understand weather. Told in a flowing narrative that reads like fiction but is packed with information, Isaac's Storm is a fascinating read for anyone who have ever experience extreme tropical weather. This book is informative and gives readers a basic, if essential, understanding of the forces that combine to create our world's deadliest storms. And now that those storms are reaching new and terrifying locations, everyone should read it. (A new edition including Hurricane Katrina and Super Storm Sandy would be greatly coveted. Hint. Hint.)
 
Larson, Erik. (1999). Isaac's Storm. New York: Vintage Books.

Dry Ice

Dry Ice by Bill Evans and Marianna Jameson is a scary thrill ride through environmental terrorism via weather manipulation.

Tess Beauchamp is a weather scientist. She is an expert on the idea of weather manipulation for economic and military gain - a concept that is just a theory, she thinks. Then she is offered a job at the TESLA (Terrestrial Energy Southern Land Array) base in Antarctica - a private instillation owned by Flint Agrobusiness.

TESLA was designed by a fellow weather scientist, Greg Simpson, based on the ideas that Nikola Tesla came up with over a century ago. Now Flint has the technology to make sure their crops around the world are successful. They have also done some work for the US military. But Flint wants to replace Simpson - so badly that they are sending a plane into the Antarctic winter - weeks after the no fly cut off.

But Simpson is not leaving willingly and has build a Trojan horse into TESLA that will set off raging storms the world over. Beauchamp and the crew will have to pull out all of the stops to prevent the weather apocalypse.

Evans and Jameson have created a scary scenario that readers will hope is not scientifically possible. Great, scary thriller.

Evan, Bill. (2011). Dry Ice. New York: Forge.