Rating: 
Summary: Memories
Review: I, too, lived through the Ruskin Heights tornado. I am older than Carolyn and did not know her, but I know many of the people she interviewed for the book. Reading it was like a visit with old friends. Truly, whenever I get together with my Ruskin friends, the tornado is always a topic of conversation. In fact, I'm ordering a copy of the book for a friend who missed it. I'm glad to find it still available.I graduated from Ruskin High School in 1954, and my younger brother graduated in 1957. The baccalaureate service had been held in the high school gym on Sunday afternoon, and commencement was scheduled for Tuesday evening. But Monday evening the high school blew away. We lived on Highway 71, across from the Crest Drive-In Theater. I worked as a legal secretary in downtown KC and was working late that night. My boss tried to take me home but we were turned back at the intersection of Prospect and Highway 71. I asked the man who turned us back if he knew whether the Crest theater screen was still standing, and he said he wasn't sure but he thought it was. If the tornado followed the usual directional path, it would have gotten the movie screen before it got our house; so I was reasonably assured that our house was still there. I went to a friend's house in KC and without expecting success, picked up the phone to call my mother. I got no dial tone, just an open line, and tentatively said "hello?" And my mother answered me! She had just dialed the friend's number and I had picked up the phone before it rang. By this incredible luck I learned that night that our house was undamaged. The tornado passed about a quarter of a mile south of us. Last week I had dinner with a group of friends from that era. One man told about working far into that night looking for and rescuing survivors with a fire department unit in the Hickman Orchard. He said his crew could see looters working the houses just ahead of them. They couldn't do anything about the looters because they were focusing on finding survivors. A sad but true tale. Carolyn Brewer did a great job with this book. It is a real service to help us remember.
Rating:
Summary: I'd give this book ten stars if I could!
Review: Ive recently read alot of books on Tornadoes and this one was probably the best. It is very well written- the author really makes you feel like you were there. It goes into great detail from beginning to end. I read this book in 2 days. I could not put it down! Anyone interested in tornadoes and their effect on people-get this book. She also includes unbeleiveable photos and stories that you have to see to beleive. A+++ book.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing account of disaster and its aftermath
Review: Like several of the other reviewers, I lived through the "'57 Tornado" as we came to call it. We were lucky, in that we lived just on the *other* side of the railroad tracks, about a block north of C.A. Burke School. We lost a few windows, but that was about it. I was only five years old at the time, but I remember clearly the sound, and I remember seeing the tornado pass as I huddled with my two brothers under a mattress and looked out the basement window. No one ever talked about it much. But it continued to impact our lives in some not-too-obvious ways. One of my strongest recollections is grade school art class at C.A. Burke. We were going to make "mosaic" trivets for our mothers. We went out to the playground, and were told to gather bits of broken ceramic tile to use. We all found plenty (and this was at least 3 years after the tornado). We placed these bits of broken history into tin cottage cheese container lids, and poured in the "grout." Mine contained the pieces of what I'm sure was someone's beige and brown bathroom, which I had carefully placed in the pattern of a long-handled saucepan. I think my mother still has that trivet. Carolyn Glenn graduated with my older brother's class. I haven't kept in touch with many folks, but I certainly recognized a lot of names in her book. Judy Hembree and Janice Steinbrueck were classmates of mine; Blaine Steck was our principal at Ruskin High. We later moved south a few blocks to a house just 3 doors down from Mr. Nesbit, who was at that time superintendant of schools. Carolyn has managed to capture the terror of that night via the accounts narrated by the victims themselves. And the events that occurred afterward still shape attitudes and friendships today. I now know, for example, why my parents were always so "negative" about the Red Cross, and so positive about the Salvation Army. I never understood it until I read how each agency treated some of the victims. The way people bond together after a disaster is clearly presented, too. And I also rememberd the sense of humor exhibited in the face of unspeakable loss -- the crudely lettered signs that appeared on the wreckage, telling the milkman not to bother to stop that day, or "Here lies our mortgage." What indomitable spirit these young families had that enabled them to rebuild and go on with their lives.
Rating:
Summary: A chronicle of my send-off
Review: Ms. Brewer's book performs many useful services for those of us who had "up close and personal" experience with this monster. I now can provide printed proof that the tornado really did eat my high school transcripts. That was, of course, a small loss compared to what might have happened. The tornado struck the night in between the Baccalaureate and Commencement, on either of which most of my classmates, many of our staff, and I would all have been gathered under the crosshairs in our beautiful new gymnasium. Survival by many would have been chancy at best. I must differ with other reviewers about the pictures. You must understand that mortar, bricks, and steel girders were so many tinkertoys to be knocked asunder, as by a giant at play. We all heard about the car that hit the water tower. This story, along with less well-known hair-raising incidents are in this book. More than that, the efforts by local officials, most notably Kansas City's mayor H. Roe Bartle, both to maintain order the night of the tornado and to aid recovery, are covered well. At the time, the damaged area was not part of corporate KC, so Bartle was under no obligation. The remarkable arrangement of eyewitness accounts makes for a flexibility not often found in this kind of narrative.
Rating:
Summary: A chronicle of my send-off
Review: Ms. Brewer's book performs many useful services for those of us who had "up close and personal" experience with this monster. I now can provide printed proof that the tornado really did eat my high school transcripts. That was, of course, a small loss compared to what might have happened. The tornado struck the night in between the Baccalaureate and Commencement, on either of which most of my classmates, many of our staff, and I would all have been gathered under the crosshairs in our beautiful new gymnasium. Survival by many would have been chancy at best. I must differ with other reviewers about the pictures. You must understand that mortar, bricks, and steel girders were so many tinkertoys to be knocked asunder, as by a giant at play. We all heard about the car that hit the water tower. This story, along with less well-known hair-raising incidents are in this book. More than that, the efforts by local officials, most notably Kansas City's mayor H. Roe Bartle, both to maintain order the night of the tornado and to aid recovery, are covered well. At the time, the damaged area was not part of corporate KC, so Bartle was under no obligation. The remarkable arrangement of eyewitness accounts makes for a flexibility not often found in this kind of narrative.
Rating:
Summary: Ruskin Revisited
Review: The book was perhaps more interesting since I have not been back to Ruskin. I was also a classmate of Judy Hembree and others in the book. We did not dwell on the tornado aftermath in the 60s, but now realize that it shaped our reaction to crisis. Nice read.
Rating:
Summary: Ruskin Revisited
Review: The book was perhaps more interesting since I have not been back to Ruskin. I was also a classmate of Judy Hembree and others in the book. We did not dwell on the tornado aftermath in the 60s, but now realize that it shaped our reaction to crisis. Nice read.
Rating: 
Summary: Great content, could have used better editing
Review: This book is a gripping and compelling story of the May 20 1957 tornado in the words of the survivors 20-30 years later. It has personal interest to me as a life-long Kansas City resident, tornado obsessor and '50s buff. In the mid to late 1980s, I resided in apartments which were adjacent to the railroad tracks and just south of the Ruskin shopping center. I figuratively could not put the book down once I started. My only criticism would be the large number of spelling and grammar errors.
Rating:
Summary: Great content, could have used better editing
Review: This book is a gripping and compelling story of the May 20 1957 tornado in the words of the survivors 20-30 years later. It has personal interest to me as a life-long Kansas City resident, tornado obsessor and '50s buff. In the mid to late 1980s, I resided in apartments which were adjacent to the railroad tracks and just south of the Ruskin shopping center. I figuratively could not put the book down once I started. My only criticism would be the large number of spelling and grammar errors.
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