Survival In The Storm

Norman Ollestad was thrust into the world of surfing and competitive downhill skiing at a very young age by the father he idolized. Often paralyzed by fear, young Norman resented losing his childhood to his father’s reckless and demanding adventures, even as he began to reap the rewards of his training. Then, in February 1979, a chartered Cessna carrying eleven-year-old Norman, his father, his father’s girlfriend Sandra and the pilot, crashed into the San Gabriel Mountains. Norman’s father -- a man who was both his son’s coach and hero -- was dead, along with the pilot; Sandra was clinging to life. Suspended at over 8,000 feet and engulfed in a blizzard, grief-stricken Norman descended the icy mountain alone. Putting his father’s passionate lessons to work, he defied the elements and made it down alive -- the sole survivor of the crash. A compulsive, page-turning read, at times nostalgic and heart-wrenching, Crazy for the Storm illuminates the complicated bond between an extraordinary father and his son, and offers remarkable insight to us all.

Caught in the vicious ice storm of 1998, would you survive? A severe ice storm hits Montreal and parts of eastern Canada. Ethan’s dad is in Toronto on business and his step-mom, Sylvie, is is going to have a baby. The weather is so bad his dad can’t fly home. When the power goes off in their building, they try to adjust, but it’s cold despite all the blankets, and it’s dark despite candles and flashlights. Sylvie suddenly feels unwell and his elderly neighbour, Mrs. Greenbaum, has been hurt. Is the baby coming early? Can he get help for Mrs. Greenbaum in time? How will they survive?

You're a meteorology student fascinated by storms. But Mother Nature can be unpredictable. Situations can quickly turn deadly when extreme weather is involved. What do you do when, You're in a van full of people and a tornado suddenly appears to be headed right for you? A hurricane gains strength along the Florida coast but you're unable to convince people to leave their homes? A flash flood suddenly strikes, putting you and your friends and family in mortal danger? Experience the life or death dilemmas that face storm chasers. YOU CHOOSE what you'll do next. The choices you make will either lead you to safety or to doom.

Caught in the eye of a hurricane! Would you survive? Michael reached for something -- anything -- to stop him from sliding off the roof, but there was nothing to hold on to. Nothing. He fell into the darkness and splashed into the icy water. The streets of Michael's Toronto neighbourhood were saturated, the Humber River swollen from days of pounding rain. Hurricane Hazel was devastating the Caribbean and southern United States, but no one expected Hazel to reach Toronto. No one was prepared. When the river overflows its banks, Michael's house is in danger of being swept away. Fleeing his home through the roof -- his only way of escape -- Michael plummets into the freezing water. How will he make it out alive? Hurricane Hazel was a category 4 hurricane that struck Toronto on the night of October 15, 1954. Winds of 110 km/hour and 285 mm of rain over 48 hours hit Toronto. Thousands were left homeless. Eighty-one people died in Toronto when waterways flooded, thirty-five of them on Raymore Drive near the Humber River.

When Hurricane María made landfall in Puerto Rico in September 2017, it left no part of the archipelago unscathed. The hurricane triggered floods and mudslides, washed out roads, destroyed tens of thousands of homes, farms, and businesses, caused the largest blackout in US history, knocked out communications, led to widespread food, drinking water, and gasoline shortages, and caused thousands of deaths. The seventeen oral histories collected in Mi María: Surviving the Storm share stories of surviving the storm and its long aftermath as people waited for relief and aid that rarely arrived. Zaira and her husband floated on a patched air mattress for sixteen hours while floodwaters rose around them. The road washed out in front of Emmanuel as he desperately tried to drive his pregnant wife who had begun labor to the hospital. Luis and his father anxiously counted the days that the dialysis clinic remained closed and lifesaving treatment was unavailable, while Miliana’s mother was sent home from the hospital —undiagnosed— only to fall critically ill in her own home. Weaving together long-form oral histories and shorter testimonios, the book offers a multivocal peoples’ history of disaster that fosters a greater understanding of the failures of governmental disaster response and the correlating perseverance of the people impacted by these failures, highlighting the colonial relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States. Ultimately, the ways in which these oral histories demonstrate the strength of community response to disaster in Puerto Rico are pertinent to other parts of the world that are being impacted by our current climate emergency.

Adrenaline Books' search for the world's best and most exciting reading has taken readers from the peaks of Everest to the jungles of Papua, New Guinea. Now, publishing's most successful adventure literature series returns with Storm, first-hand accounts of battling the elements: hurricanes; blizzards; tornadoes; sandstorms — in mountains, seas, plains, and jungles. Included are sections from sailors, climbers, captains, and other hardy souls, such as Patrick O'Brien, Stephen Venables, Chris Bonington, Sebastian Junger, Joseph Conrad and Apsley Cherry-Garrard. Harrowing adventures that test human endurance, Storm contains stories of individuals who must fight to stay alive: Barry Lopez is trapped among arctic floes by a sudden squall; Art Davidson's team freezes in a wind storm on Mt. McKinley as the temperature hits 148 degrees below zero; an idyllic sail turns tragic when Gordon Chaplin loses his ship and lover in a South Pacific typhoon. Adrenaline Books presents the latest installment of the most thrilling accounts of men and women who have had to face the full force of nature's fury.

“An intense, immersive deep dive into a wild, dangerous, and unknown world, written with the pace and appeal of a great thriller. This is nonfiction at its very best.”—Lee Child The true story of two doomed ships and a daring search-and-rescue operation that shines a light on the elite Coast Guard swimmers trained for the most dangerous ocean missions In late September 2015, Hurricane Joaquin swept past the Bahamas and swallowed a pair of cargo vessels in its destructive path: El Faro, a 790-foot American behemoth with a crew of thirty-three, and the Minouche, a 230-foot freighter with a dozen sailors aboard. From the parallel stories of these ships and their final journeys, Tristram Korten weaves a remarkable tale of two veteran sea captains from very different worlds, the harrowing ordeals of their desperate crews, and the Coast Guard’s extraordinary battle against a storm that defied prediction. When the Coast Guard received word from Captain Renelo Gelera that the Minouche was taking on water on the night of October 1, the servicemen on duty helicoptered through Joaquin to the sinking ship. Rescue swimmer Ben Cournia dropped into the sea—in the middle of a raging tropical cyclone, in the dark—and churned through the monstrous swells, loading survivors into a rescue basket dangling from the helicopter as its pilot struggled against the tempest. With pulsating narrative skill in the tradition of Sebastian Junger and Jon Krakauer, Korten recounts the heroic efforts by Cournia and his fellow guardsmen to haul the Minouche’s crew to safety. Tragically, things would not go as well for Captain Michael Davidson and El Faro. Despite exhaustive searching by her would-be rescuers, the loss of the vessel became the largest U.S. maritime disaster in decades. As Korten narrates the ships’ fates, with insights drawn from insider access to crew members, Coast Guard teams, and their families, he delivers a moving and propulsive story of men in peril, the international brotherhood of mariners, and the breathtaking power of nature. Praise for Into the Storm “The story [Tristram] Korten tells is impressively multifaceted, exploring everything from timely issues such as climate change to timeless themes such as man’s struggle against the ocean’s fury.”—Miami New Times “Into the Storm is a triumph of reporting and you-are-there writing that becomes a deeper tale—with more implications about our own lives—with every chapter.”—Robert Kurson, New York Times bestselling author of Shadow Divers