Description
The Columbus Day Storm of 1962 was a freak of nature, a weather outlier with deadly winds topping one hundred miles per hour. The storm killed dozens, injured hundreds, and leveled enough timber to build one million homes. This unrivaled West Coast windstorm fueled the Asian log export market, helped give birth to the Oregon wine industry, and influenced the 1962 World Series. It remains a cautionary tale a regional benchmark for severe windstorms in this era of climate change and weather uncertainty. Veteran journalist John Dodge tells a compelling story spiced with human drama, Cold War tension, and Pacific Northwest history. This is a must-read for the tens of thousands of storm survivors, for history buffs, and for anyone interested in the intersection of severe weather events and climate change.
John Dodge was a columnist, editorial page writer, and investigative reporter for the Olympian before retiring in 2015 after an award-winning career spanning forty years. He is a veteran of natural disaster reporting, including the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. He experienced the Columbus Day Storm as a young teenager and wrote about the storm at its twnty-fifth, fortieth, and fiftieth anniversaries.