Evilcyclist on November's Fury

Review of Michael Schumacher's book.

Schumacher_Novembers coverIt is hard to believe today that so many ships could be lost in a storm. The Great Lakes are no where near the size of the Gulf of Mexico or the oceans where hurricanes form. The ships on the Great Lakes hauling ore and coal were 400 – 550 feet long. These ships are huge for freshwater shipping and looking at them, its unimaginable that they could sink in a storm. This was before radar, GPS, and storm tracking. Granted the weather service did issue warnings a combination of hubris, greed, and bad planning caused a large loss of life. For the residents of Cleveland there was little that could be done. Winter storms and lake effect snow are expected yearly, however, he severity cannot prevented or at that time accurately anticipated. 

Cleveland lay in white and mighty solitude, mute and death to the outside world, a city of lonesome snowiness, storm swept from end to end – The Cleveland Plain Dealer

I grew up in Cleveland and studied Cleveland history in grade school, but don’t recall the reading about the storm of November 1913.

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Published in: Evilcyclist blog
By: Joseph Spuckler