Judy Dodge Cummings - Earth, Wind, Fire, and Rain: Real Tales of Temperamental Elements

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ISBN Softcover: 978-1-61930-628-8
ISBN Hardcover: 978-1-61930-626-4

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Earth, wind, fire, and waterthe ancient Greeks believed these four elements were the foundation of life. Earth provides nourishment, wind is the air we breathe, fire warms and lights, and water cleanses and quenches.

But nature is fickle. While these elements give life, they also take it away.

The power of a natural disaster is chilling. The blue sky, calm water, and solid ground we take for granted can turn on us with sudden fury. When nature gets ugly, it is a stark reminder that no matter how advanced civilization becomes, we will always be at the mercy of the elements.

Five of Americas deadliest natural disasters were made worse by human error, ignorance, and greed.

In 1871, the vast forest of northern Wisconsin was a tinderbox. While loggers, railroad workers, and farmers in the town of Peshtigo prayed for rain, they kept chopping down trees and burning brush. On October 8, small blazes joined hands in a funnel of flame that burned 1 million acres of forest in the deadliest fire in American history.

The people in Peshtigo knew fire posed a threat during that dry summer, but the residents of New York City were blindsided by the Great White Hurricane that hit on March 11, 1888. Meteorologists had predicted clearing skies, but then two storm fronts collided, bringing New York City to its knees.

Communication with the outside world was cut off and all transportation ground to a halt. People froze to death in snowdrifts more than 10 feet high. Others drowned in the icy harbor.

Powerless, too, were the residents of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on May 31, 1889. A private club of wealthy businessmen owned a dam upriver from Johnstown. The club modified the dam to improve recreation on its private lake, but these changes weakened the structure. When heavy rains fell, the dam burst, sending 20 million tons of water downriver.

Although the dam was clearly the creation of man, the courts deemed the flood an act of God. No one was held responsible for the destruction.

Of course, no one is at fault when an earthquake strikes. On April 18, 1906, the ground under San Francisco, California, began to shake and crack. A massive earthquake toppled buildings and broke water and gas mains. Fires erupted across the city that could not be blamed on nature alone. Years of corruption and mismanagement by officials left the fire department unprepared to battle the blazes. For three days, San Francisco burned.

Drought and strong winds were common to the Southern Plains, but in the 1920s, farmers replaced the natural grasses that held the soil in place with millions of acres of wheat. Nature got even by transforming this breadbasket into the Dust Bowl. On April 14, 1935, winds from Canada moved across the flat land at speeds of 65 miles an hour, picking up soil as it blew. A cloud of dirt stretched 200 miles wide, suffocating livestock, smothering crops, and burying houses and people in dirt. Black Sunday was just the beginning of an ecological nightmare.

These natural disasters cost millions of dollars and caused much death and misery. But they also sparked reforms that changed America. Fire prevention strategies, disaster response plans, and improvements in weather forecasting, architecture, and agriculture developed after the clouds passed and the fires were put out. These advances save lives.

But rememberno one controls nature. Be prepared to get out of the way when disaster strikes.

Long ago in northeast Wisconsin, a forest grew. Hundreds and thousands of acres of hemlock, oak, maple, and pine trees stood shoulder to shoulder. Catholic priest Peter Pernin came to the area in 1870 and described it as a wild but majestic forest. Trees, trees, everywhere, nothing else but trees as far as you can travel. The king of the forest was the white pine.

Six feet wide and 170 feet tall, just one tree could be used to complete an entire house. To lumbermen, these pines were gold. The wild and rapid Peshtigo River cut a crooked path through the forest, and by the mid 1800s, sawmills had sprung up along its banks.

At the sawmills, logs were cut into boards to be sent downriver to the Green Bay of Lake Michigan. From there, the timber was shipped to Chicago, 250 miles south.

Farmers followed the loggers north, and the little town of Peshtigo was born. A journalist from Detroit, Michigan, was taken by its beauty. Wisconsin is the Eden of our country, he wrote.

But this paradise would be short-lived. On October 8, 1871, drought, human carelessness, and combustible weather ignited the deadliest fire in American history. Eden burned.

When Father Pernin arrived in 1870, the town of Peshtigo was booming. Chicago businessman William Ogden founded the Peshtigo Company in 1856. The company included a sawmill, woodenware factory, dry-goods store, and boardinghouse. A harbor into Green Bay lay only 6 miles southeast of town, so lumber could be shipped south across Lake Michigan.