the Children's Blizzard

[diamond lil]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Childrens-Blizz ... 565&sr=1-3

THIS IS NOT A CHILDRENS BOOK. I am finding this book hard going. So sad and such waste of lives. But its an eye-opener on the life & times of 1880s Dakota/Nebraska territories. Many hints in there for living with deep snow and blizzards and it doesnt half make you feel relieved that this doesnt happen anymore.
Thurs the 12th Jan was a warm and sunny winter day, so all the kids who had been cooped up for weeks were sent to school... That afternoon things got suddenly worse. Without any warning at all, a blizzard swept in from the north west. Record falls in temps, hurricane force winds and blinding snow.
Next morning over 500 people, many of them children caught in it coming home from school, were dead. Some were not found for weeks. Its very sad

[itsybitsy]

Lil, that book looks great. Not my usual thing, but I need some 'meaty' reading to see me through the winter nights (my life is all about the rock and roll!) so I think I may give that a whirl.

[diamond lil]

It's an eye opener to life in the real wild west. Women who lived in sod houses out on the prairie and hauled water, minded stock,cooked washed and had babies without any electricity or mod cons of any sort. And then there was the weather... The army officer who was in charge of weather obs saw this coming but did not think to warn anybody as that was not part of his job - his job was to take readings and pass to his superior. Unbloodybelievable. And yet he was seen as a very good man.