A big storm is approaching, and Katie, her parents, and all her neighbors head to the grocery store to stock up on necessities--and Katie gets a lesson in smart shopping.

Hurricanes.

A storm and its sunny aftermath come to life through gorgeous art and lyrical text. What do you do when the clouds roll in, When the wind chimes clang and the weather vanes spin? When stormy skies threaten, people stock up on supplies, bring in their outside toys, and check the news for updates. And during the storm, if the power goes out, they can play games and tell stories by candlelight. But what do animals do? They watch and listen, look for a cozy den or some other sheltered spot, and hunker down to wait. After the storm, while the people are cleaning up their yards, making repairs, and checking on the neighbors, the animals emerge from their hiding places and shake off the rain. And everyone is happy to be out in the sunshine again, grateful for better weather and the company of friends.

Sgt.Garland Flowers, a homicide detective for the Los Angeles County Sheriff ́s Department, has a dilemma. He loves his wife and he loves his job, but his two loves are not compatible. This conflict is causing the breakup of his marriage and any hopes for a normal home life. The long hours, constant demands of the job, and Garland ́s preoccupation with his cases have caused the couple to separate. The turmoil in his personal life, though, does not compare with what is in store for him in his latest case. Garland and his partner, Archie Penner, are called to investigate a murder in a ghetto community adjacent to the city of Los Angeles. The scene they encounter resembles a disaster area. "The place looks like a cyclone went through it" is how the deputy at the scene describes it. A triple murder, including a pre-adolescent girl, has been perpetrated. The apartment has been left in shambles, with furniture thrown about as if by a raging storm. Two of the victims, a man and a woman, are in the master bedroom. The man ́s neck is broken and the woman has been strangled. Both appear to have been dispatched by an incredibly powerful assailant. In the other bedroom is their child, the product of a racially mixed marriage. The body of the child is neatly laid out in repose. She has been smothered. No items in the room have been displaced ... quite a contrast from the other rooms. Further assessment of the crime scene rules out robbery as a motive. Could this crime have been racially motivated? The crime has all the earmarks of an act of personal rage. With little to go on, no fingerprints, no witnesses or other clues as to the perpetrator ́s identity or motive, the detectives have no place to turn. That is, until another multiple homicide two weeks later gives Flowers his first break. A thumbprint has been lifted from the second crime scene. The fingerprint identifies the suspect as a man by the name of B.C. Jones, a recent parolee from Soledad Prison. Jones is six feet six inches in height and weighs 280 pounds, and none of it is fat. His chest and arms are massive. For six years he has been lifting weights in prison, where he was sent for killing his father. He committed the crime with his bare hands. Jones is a mulatto, the product of a black father and a white mother. He is also simple-minded, having endured a childhood of constant physical abuse. He is a social outcast, and is extremely bitter about his racially mixed blood. In his mind, his lack of racial identity is the root of all of his problems, and he feels compelled to do something about it. During the course of the investigation Sgt. Flowers pieces together the psychological puzzle that motivates Jones to commit these murders. Meanwhile, Jones discovers that he has been named as the suspect in these crimes and flees to the home of his only known relative, an aunt who lives in Gulfport, Mississippi. While staying with her he is arrested for a minor offense. A routine record check is made, and the Gulfport Police Department learns that Jones is wanted for murder in Los Angeles. The L. A. County Sheriff ́s Department is immediately notified. Sgt. Flowers is assigned the task of traveling to Mississippi to pick up the prisoner and return him to Los Angeles for trial. The Deep South is not a place Flowers has ever given any thought of visiting. After all, this is 1969, and desegregation is still new to these parts ... and Garland Flowers happens to be black. Born and reared in California, he has heard horrifying stories of how blacks are treated in the South, and is concerned about the kind of cooperation and assistance he will receive from the Southern law enforcement officers. But his reception is not what he expects. The absence of racial prejudice that he encounters upon

Resilient supply chains are crucial to maintaining the consistent delivery of goods and services to the American people. The modern economy has made supply chains more interconnected than ever, while also expanding both their range and fragility. In the third quarter of 2017, Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria revealed some significant vulnerabilities in the national and regional supply chains of Texas, Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. The broad impacts and quick succession of these three hurricanes also shed light on the effectiveness of the nation's disaster logistics efforts during response through recovery. Drawing on lessons learned during the 2017 hurricanes, this report explores future strategies to improve supply chain management in disaster situations. This report makes recommendations to strengthen the roles of continuity planning, partnerships between civic leaders with small businesses, and infrastructure investment to ensure that essential supply chains will remain operational in the next major disaster. Focusing on the supply chains food, fuel, water, pharmaceutical, and medical supplies, the recommendations of this report will assist the Federal Emergency Management Agency as well as state and local officials, private sector decision makers, civic leaders, and others who can help ensure that supply chains remain robust and resilient in the face of natural disasters.

Nominated Best Nonfiction Book for 2004 —Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters On August 17, 1969, Hurricane Camille roared out of the Gulf of Mexico and smashed into Mississippi's twenty-six miles of coastline. Winds were clocked at more than 200 miles per hour, tidal waves surged to nearly 35 feet, and the barometric pressure of 26.85 inches neared an all-time low. Survivors of the killer storm date events as BC and AC—Before Camille and After Camille. The history of Hurricane Camille is told here through the eyes and the memories of those who survived the traumatic winds and tides. Their firsthand accounts, compiled a decade after the storm and archived at the University of Southern Mississippi, form the core of this book. Property damage exceeded $1.5 billion, $48.6 billion in today's dollars. Fashionable beachfront homes, holiday hotels, marinas, night clubs, and souvenir shops were devastated. The death toll in the state's three coastal counties—Harrison, Hancock, and Jackson—reached 131, with another 41 persons never found. The rampaging storm then moved north through Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia and sparked flash floods that killed more than 100 in Virginia before moving into the Atlantic. Camille is one of only three Category 5 hurricanes ever to hit the U.S. mainland. Along the Coast today, vacant lots, slabs of concrete, and mysterious staircases and driveways leading to nowhere are Camille's eerie reminders. The ruins that remain, however, are overshadowed by the dazzle and fun at the dozen casinos and high-rise hotels that dominate the modern beachfront. Once more the seashore is thriving. Rambling homes, the neon lights of motels and family restaurants, and the nets and masts of shrimp boats mark the skyline. For the Mississippi Coast, a historic retreat between New Orleans on the west and Mobile on the east—these are the best of times. This gripping story of the Coast's most devastating storm recounts what happened on a terrifying night more than three decades ago. It reminds, too, what can happen again.