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“A gripping, heartbreaking and heartwarming account of the monster tornado that ravaged Moore, Oklahoma in 2013.”

--Daniel James Brown, #1 NY Times bestselling author of The Boys in the Boat  

An acclaimed reporter returns to her hometown after the worst twister on record and emerges with a suspenseful story of human courage in the face of natural disaster.

 

Holly Bailey grew up dreaming of becoming a storm chaser. Instead, she became Newsweek ’s youngest ever White House correspondent, traveling to war zones with Presidents Bush and Obama. But nothing prepared her for what she would soon find back home. On May 20, 2013, the worst tornado on record landed a direct hit on the small town of Moore, destroying two schools while the children cowered inside. Bailey went back both as a journalist and a hometown girl, speaking to the teachers who put their lives at risk to save their students, the weathermen more revered than rock stars and more tormented than they let on, and many shell-shocked residents. In The Mercy of the Sky Bailey does for the Oklahoma flatlands what Sebastian Junger did for Gloucester, Massachusetts, in The Perfect Storm , telling a dramatic, page-turning story about a town that must survive the elements—or die.