The
enormity of Texas's many major disasters are an appropriate match for
the state's large size. This is an area of the country where tornadoes
are a frequent threat, but in addition to the many violent twisters,
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."
Twenty dramatic true stories are retold in this well-researched
collection, including:
- The
deadly quarter-mile-wide tornado that roared through the
town of Goliad in 1902, killing 114 people, injuring 230, and
demolishing 150 structures.
- A
1937 natural gas explosion at a school in New London, which
blew the whole building into the air and killed 298 students and
teachers.
- A
15-foot wall of water that in 1965 swept down the canyon in
the West Texas railroad town of Sanderson, killing whole families but
uniting the racially divided town in rescue efforts.
- The
1947 explosion of the SS Grandcamp, a French vessel docked
in Texas City and laden with ammonium nitrate, which had caught fire
and later ignited another ship carrying the same cargo. The two blasts
killed 576 people, injured thousands more, and jarred residents of
Houston 40 miles to the north.
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Texas Disasters
True
Stories of Tragedy and Survival
by Mike Cox
Globe Pequot,
2006
Order
a copy.
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