Roar of the Heavens

by Stefan Bechtel

Book Overview

"Rain is likely tonight, ending tomorrow. Thursday will be fair and cooler." So began the final and most destructive act of Hurricane Camille, a storm so ferocious that scientists calculated the odds... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0806527064
• ISBN13: 9780806527062
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Citadel Press
• Length: 308 Pages
• Weight: 1.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.7" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Totally absorbing

I was on my way to a Poetry Festival on a Friday, and I started reading Roar of the Heavens Thursday night. Instead of getting rested for the Festival, I was up until 1:30 am, When I arrived, and pitched my tent, and got to the Festival grounds, I immediately sat down and started reading the book. Instead of strolling the village, breaking into a discussion on Craft with a Poet, I sat down and kept reading. Friday night was freezing cold, and I kept reading. In the cold, I kept thinking about the fascinating dynamics of the structure of a Hurricane, and Warren Raines freezing as he clung to tree branches. On Saturday, during a readings break, I climbed into my car, and finished the book. Finally, I could stop thinking about what happened to Mary Anne, Buzz, etc, and etc, and starting absorbing some POETRY. Saturday night it was raining, and I was terrified driving to the campground, and hearing the rain on the roof of my tent, and it was pouring Sunday morning, and I wondered if having been isolated from Weather forecasts, something was coming of which I was unaware. And thought of the unidentified bodies perhaps hiking the trails as Camille roared through. What a riveting read, and the adrenaline is still pumping! The scientific explanation of the mechanics of a Hurricane were so clearly described, and fascinating. And the interweaving of what was happening in the country and world, with the life and death dramas of those trying to survive Camille really put things in time and place that connects the reader intimately to the events. And the families and people were so real; their pain and suffering, and the incredible devastation. I know I was thinking about going to college that summer, at that's all I remember. I remember going to Mardi Gras in 1972 and seeing the steps going to no where on the Coast, Biloxi. And I used to drive Rt. 29 going to Conn. from N.C. in the seventies. Congratulations on writing such an intense and absorbing, and well researched book.

Absolutely excellent!

As a confirmed "Disaster Maven", I own many books about both natural and man made disasters. "Roar of the Heavens" ranks up in my top 5 books! The author has excellent pacing, strong material and does a bang up job of keeping my interest. I was aware, of course, of the Gulf Coast destruction by Camille, but the information about the castastrophe in VA is new to me. I had a hard time putting this one down. The timing of release, at the very start of hurricane season 2006, is brilliant. Thnka you, Mr Bechtel, for a wonderful book.

So vivid I almost forgot I was reading

I think this is a really, really good book! Normally, I read books in little sips before going to bed--but Roar of the Heavens was different. I took it to work, and read it when I was supposed to be doing other things! The author wove together a lot of material, drawing together the recollections of many survivors, and framing these recollections with vivid contextual passages so effectively that at times I almost forgot that I was reading; I was just "in the moment," as Camille came ashore in Pass Christian, or later, in Nelson County, when the floodwaters rose, sweeping away whole towns. But the book is more than a collection of disaster stories, dramatic and moving as these are. There's also a lot of attention given to the science of hurricanes, and the particular circumstances that created Camille. The author lets you sort of look over the shoulder of meteorologists tracking the storm, but also--in passages that are positively lyrical--he takes the reader right up into the troposphere, to witness the daemonic proportions of this truly Miltonic hurricane. The view is both terrible and beautiful. The section at the end of the book, "Afterward: Katrina Was No Lady," is also really, engaging. In this section, the author visits places he had described for his book on Camille, and which now once again had been devastated by Katrina. This sort of double-vision yields some interesting and heart-felt reflections. Isaac's Storm got a lot of press, and for good reason. But Roar of the Heavens is every bit the equal of that book--and was a much more difficult project, I think, since it was based upon the recollections of many people who are still living. I highly recommend Roar of the Heavens!

Camille was no lady

Stefan Bechtel brings forth the riveting stories of survival during the infamous Hurricane Camille of August,1969. Beginning with her nerve-rattling approach and eventual landfall on the Gulf Coast,through her thousand-mile trek of death,destruction,and despair from Louisiana and Mississippi to Virginia,Bechtel`s vivid details are as gripping as a fine novel.His book easily draws ample comparisons to Erik Larson`s "Isaac`s Storm" and to Judith Howard`s recent "Category Five". Bechtel does not fail to include comparisons with Hurricane Katrina in his book. Roar Of The Heavens has 308 pages and contains a sizable amount of both rare and classic photographs. This book was endorsed by writer John Grisham and by weatherman extraordinaire,Jim Cantore.

I Felt Like I Was in the Eye of the Storm

This is a terrific read; awe-inspiring, evocative, moving, and informative. Not only does the author vividly portray the humans caught in Killer Camille, their lives, and places, and times. But what I really found remarkable is how he also brings to eerie life the deadly storm herself, as though she had a personality and intelligence driving her destructive rampage. It reads like a detective story, meticulously chronicling the hunt for -- and the death and destruction caused by -- a serial killer created by nature. Couldn't put it down.