Infinite Monster: Courage, Hope, and Resurrection in the Face of One of America's Largest Hurricanes

''Infinite Monster is a deeply moving, harrowing account of one America's great cities--Galveston--being ravaged by Hurricane Ike. Highly recommended!'' ---Douglas Brinkley, professor of History at Rice University and author of The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast

''Infinite Monster deserves a place alongside Isaac's Storm and A Weekend in September as a tale of a star-crossed city's struggle to endure the ravages of a mammoth hurricane. Leigh Jones' and Rhiannon Meyers' meticulous reporting chronicles the dramatic personal stories that took place on the night Hurricane Ike made landfall and the controversial decisions that had to be made in the storm's aftermath.'' ---Paul Burka, Senior Executive Editor, Texas Monthly

''This is a wonderful book, filled with stories that made me angry (all over again), made me smile, and a few that made me cry. The only story Leigh and Rhiannon don t tell here is their own two young women who lost nearly all they owned to Hurricane Ike but fought on to tell the story. I could not be prouder of these two and the rest of our valiant and resourceful staff at The Daily News.'' ---Dolph Tillotson, publisher of The Galveston County Daily News

Product Description

In 2008, Hurricane Ike swept the Gulf of Mexico into Galveston, submerging 75 percent of the city, shredding entire buildings to splinters, and turning out rich and poor alike from their beloved island home.

Scores of private interviews expose the politics of recovery, the destitution of loss, and the revelry of rebirth. Award-winning Galveston County Daily News reporters Leigh Jones and Rhiannon Meyers deliver the story about one of America's largest hurricanes through the voices of those who lived it.

Survivors who did return to the island waded through not only mounds of toxic debris, but also a dense and seemingly endless bureaucracy that threatened to stifle recovery before it even began.

Like a phantom reincarnation of its 1900 ancestor, Hurricane Ike was the Infinite Monster that would forever cloud the Gulf Coast's future.