Dark Water Rising by Marian Hale

Seth, 16, wants to be a carpenter like his father, but his dream ends when his family moves so he can become a doctor. When a storm warning alerts Galveston, nobody imagines it will be anything significant. While salvaging and rebuilding in the aftermath of the flood, Seth proves himself in a way that his previous efforts never could, but he still must face his father man-to-man.

I'll admit it, I'm a sucker for disaster stories--fiction and non-fiction. I will read anything that deals with hurricanes, volcanoes, blizzards, etc. I watch every documentary the Discovery Channel does on the Titanic. I'll even watch Dante's Peak every time it shows up on tv. So I grabbed this book dealing with the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 as soon as it came into the library. Not surprisingly, I enjoyed it. It is told totally from Seth's point of view--his experiences in surviving the hurricane, his worry about his family, and his actions in coping with the aftermath. The hurricane itself takes only a small portion of the story--most of it is concerned with the aftermath, the cleanup, the search for missing loved ones, the rebuilding, and Seth's internal journey to adulthood. Though the author does not shy away from the horror of the stuation she is not overly graphic in her descriptions. There is a particularly heartbreaking scene where Seth and Josiah find a girl buried in the rubble who is still alive but they are unable to get her out. An afterward by the author tells how she became interested in the story of the storm, and even includes some photos of the aftermath.

If you want to learn more about the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, read Issac's Storm by Erik Larson (available at both Mesquite libraries.)

So what did you think of Dark Water Rising? Did you believe in Seth's annoyance with his parents at the beginning? Are you a disaster junkie too?