Tornado Survivors Share Memories as Children of 1957 Natural Disaster in 'Caught Ever After: Children of the Ruskin Heights Tornado'

KANSAS CITY, Mo., March 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- As the nation once again comes to grips with the devastation that tornado season can bring, survivor and author Carolyn Glenn Brewer recounts the emotions and misconceptions that a tornado leaves in its wake, even 50 years later. Caught Ever After: Children of the Ruskin Heights Tornado (http://carolynglennbrewer.com) is the only book written from the perspective of the children who survived the 1957 F-5 twister that ravaged Missouri communities and explains how the experience shaped their lives.

Brewer herself is one of the child survivors. She was just a 7-year-old child when the tornado destroyed her community. "My family was trapped inside the house, which was badly damaged," she said. "I had no idea what was happening."

Brewer had previously written a book about the incident titled Caught In The Path, A Tornado's Fury, A Community's Rebirth. However, at a 50-year survivors' reunion, she realized that there was more to be told. "So many of my former playmates and classmates told me I should have interviewed them for my first book that I realized my generation had a unique perspective on this storm although it was a half a century old," she said. "Many of them had never talked about it and they were now ready to share." The result was Caught Ever After (dk publications, LLC, May 2011, $18.50).

Response to the book has been extremely positive. The "Kirkus Review" is quoted on the book's Amazon page, stating, "An almost unbearably vivid tale, experientially chromatic, but emotionally wrenching."

Amazon customer reviews confirm the assessment. "I've read this book four times, and every time brings new reactions and insights," declared one reader whose mother was a Ruskin survivor. "You experience the surreal, fatal horror of the tornado through the eyes of children, and then again with the knowingness of adults who have managed to move on," said another reader.

The 71-mile long tornado that changed Brewer's childhood touched down at 6:15 p.m. on May 20, 1957 two miles southwest of Williamsburg, Kan. Growing in strength from an F-4 to an F-5, it tore through the communities of Ottawa and Spring Hill, Kansas and Martin City, Grandview, Hickman Mills and Ruskin Heights, Missouri. Forty people were killed, 531 were injured and 842 homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed.

Author Bio

Carolyn Glenn Brewer, writer, historian, teacher and lecturer, is also a child of the Ruskin Heights tornado. This is her second book. Her widely-acclaimed first book, Caught In The Path, A Tornado's Fury, A Community's Rebirth, has been featured on local and national television and radio programs, and adapted into a one-act play. She has also written for JAM Magazine. She and her husband live in Kansas City, where besides writing she spends her time as a band director and musician.

Contact:

Carolyn Glenn Brewer
[email protected]
816-361-1354

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SOURCE Carolyn Glenn Brewer