Tornado Watch Number 211 [Hardcover]

John Grant Fuller (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

On May 31, 1985, 41 tornadoes struck an area south of Lake Erie and north of Lake Ontario. Small towns on the borders of Ohio and Pennsylvania were leveled; there, in just over four hours, more than 2000 homes were destroyed, 75 people lost their lives and more than 1000 were injured. Fuller, author of We Almost Lost Detroit, has written a spellbinding account of that fateful day. The story begins in Kansas City, at the National Severe Storms Forecast Center, where meteorologists chart weather patterns for the country. Their information is forwarded to regional weather stationsin this case, to Cleveland and Pittsburghthen to satellite stations (Youngstown, Erie), which are responsible for specific counties. Early in the day, there was a threat of severe thunderstorms in late afternoon for southern Ontario, eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania and New York. At 4:25 p.m. EST,Kansas City issued Tornado Watch #211. Was anybody listening? The first tornado struck 45 minutes later. Fuller takes us to some of the communities for an "on-the-spot" report of the devastation and its aftermath. First serial to Reader's Digest.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 202 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (September 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688065902
• ISBN-13: 978-0688065904
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #90,751 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #32 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Earth Sciences > Atmospheric Sciences

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best tornado book ever, December 7, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Tornado Watch Number 211 (Hardcover)

This is the best tornado book that I have ever read. This incident happened about 50 miles from my hometown which makes it more exiting yet.The author's chronological story from the start to end keeps the reader's interest through out the whole book. I am currently looking fo a copy of this book

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very good book for anyone who enjoys a disaster story., September 11, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Tornado Watch Number 211 (Hardcover)

TORNADO WATCH #211, By John Grant Fuller
*A Review By Mike Colclough*

On May 31, 1985, a whirling melee of cloud and debris descended upon several unsuspecting towns along the countryside of the Ohio/Pennsylvania border. What had started out as a humid but quiet day in late spring turned quickly into one of the worst tornado outbreaks ever recorded in this nation. Very few people expected it, or even knew what to do when it hit. There was warning by weather forecasters--though not much--but most people refused to heed it anyway. The results were mass casualties and devastation.

In this suspenseful non-fiction thriller, John G. Fuller (author of The Ghost Of Flight 401) keeps the disaster story-lover on-edge for most of the book, as he describes--in well-researched detail--the way events unfolded for both weather watchers and citizens alike on that day. Fuller even takes the reader into the lives of some of those affected and makes one feel as if (s)he, too, is present in the area for which the National Severe Storms Forecast Center has just issued Tornado Watch #211.

Aspiring news writers should read this book to see how cataclysmic events should be covered (but frequently are not). Anyone who is a meteorologist, weather watcher, fire chief, civil defense director, or concerned citizen should want this book for his/her personal library.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read book for tornado enthusiasts, November 10, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Tornado Watch Number 211 (Hardcover)

This is a must-read book if you have any interest in tornadoes. It is a gripping tale of small town America against the unforseen fury of one of the largest tornado outbreaks in the world. You don't just get facts - you get behind-the-scenes work on what meteorologists do to predict and forewarn for severe weather outbreaks. You are taken, step by step, through the history of these fantastic forces of nature, from the earliest signs of unstable air to the advent of the outbreak to the in-house experience to the grief and cleanup.