Moore, Richard & Barnes, Jay. Faces from the flood; Hurricane Floyd remembered.

MOORE, Richard & BARNES, Jay. Faces from the flood; Hurricane Floyd remembered. Univ. of North Caroline Press. 225p. illus. index, c2004. 0-8075-5533-2. $19,95, JSA 

Everyone in North Carolina was affected by Hurricane Floyd, which began on September 16, 1999. The newspapers and media were inundated with stories about the devastation the North Carolinians endured during the state's most destructive natural disaster. Five years later, the people who suffered the most regal us with their heartbreaking stories. When disasters hit, there are always looters and people trying to benefit from the tragedy. However, in this particular storm, people came from all over to help the area and its victims, and monies were collected from all around the world. Corporations pitched in with money and supplies. The story told is one of heroic deeds and ordinary people helping everyone they possibly could. One touching account concerns a veterinarian who volunteered her services to save all the animals in the area, including horses, dogs, cats, cows and chickens.

Richard Moore was the state's secretary of crime control and public safety, heading the Division of Emergency Management, the N.C. National Guard, and the Highway Patrol from 1995 to 1999. Jay Barnes is director of the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores. They were both in the trenches of this devastation and have done an amazing job presenting three-dozen firsthand reports from victims, volunteers, scientists, heroes and government officials. It is a riveting account of destruction, hope and never giving up. Sherri Ginsberg, Chapel Hill, NC