That Terrible Texas Weather: Tales of Storms, Drought, Destruction, and Perseverance

by Boggs, Johnny D.

• ISBN13: 9781556227271
• ISBN10: 1556227272
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-01-01
• Publisher: Natl Book Network

Summary

True-life stories of survival against insurmountable odds, especially in natural catastrophes, hold a certain fascination for us all. That Terrible Texas Weather puts the reader in the eye of the storm, at the crest of the flood, and in the heat of the drought through a collection of newspaper reports and eyewitness accounts of victims caught up in some of the most devastating weather Texas has ever produced.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction	ix
A Wild May in Dallas County, 1856
``This is no earthly storm''	1	(4)
The Indianola Hurricane of 1875
``Send us help, for God's sake''	5	(8)
The Ben Ficklin Flood of 1882
``So terrible a calamity''	13	(7)
The Blizzard of 1886
``That was the worst winter I ever saw''	20	(9)
The Indianola Hurricane of 1886
``That town is a complete wreck''	29	(10)
The Drought of 1890-1894
``The air was rancid''	39	(6)
The Rainmaking Experiment of 1891
``Producing rainfall by concussion''	45	(9)
The Brazos River Flood of 1899
``Now everything is gone''	54	(5)
The Galveston Hurricane of 1900
The Storm
``Darkness is overwhelming us''	59	(12)
The Galveston Hurricane of 1900
The Aftermath
``I have no more family''	71	(15)
The Goliad Tornado of 1902
``God seemed nigh''	86	(12)
The Corpus Christi Hurricane of 1919
``I want to forget it all as soon as possible''	98	(13)
The Austin Tornadoes of 1922
``It was a terrible thing''	111	(7)
A Day of Tornadoes, May 6, 1930
``Every violent gesture at nature's command''	118	(11)
The Panhandle Dust Storm of 1935
``It was just as black as midnight''	129	(6)
The Drought of the 1950s
``This thing was just going to keep on and on''	135	(12)
The San Angelo and Waco Tornadoes of 1953
``The monster from the sky''	147	(13)
The Sanderson Flood of 1965
``Your town is washing away''	160	(12)
The Wichita Falls Tornado of 1979
``There was nothing there''	172	(13)
The Saragosa Tornado of 1987
``I didn't know a tornado could do so much damage''	185	(6)
The Fort Worth Thunderstorm of 1995
``Thousands of light bulbs were falling from the sky''	191	(5)
The Drought and Heat Wave of 1998
``The country was hurt''	196	(4)
Epilogue	200	(3)
Afterword	203	(2)
Appendix A Texas Weather Through the Years	205	(8)
Appendix B 20 Worst Tornadoes in U.S. History	213	(1)
Appendix C 20 Deadliest 20th-Century Hurricanes on U.S. Mainland	214	(1)
Notes	215	(18)
Bibliography	233	(10)
Index	243