A Deadly Wind: The 1962 Columbus Day Storm

by John Dodge

The Columbus Day Storm of 1962 was a freak of nature, a weather outlier with deadly winds topping one hundred miles per hour. The storm killed dozens, injured hundreds, damaged more than fifty thousand homes, and leveled enough timber to build one million homes. To find an equally ferocious storm of its kind, fast-forward fifty years and cross the continent to Superstorm Sandy’s 2012 attack on the East Coast. While Superstorm Sandy was predicted days in advance, the Columbus Day Storm caught ill-equipped weather forecasters by surprise. This unrivalled West Coast windstorm fueled the Asian log export market, helped give birth to the Oregon wine industry, and influenced the 1962 World Series. It remains a cautionary tale and the Pacific Northwest benchmark for severe windstorms in this era of climate change and weather uncertainty. From its genesis in the Marshall Islands to its final hours on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, the storm plowed an unparalleled path of destruction. In A Deadly Wind, veteran journalist John Dodge tells a compelling story spiced with human drama, Cold War tension, and Pacific Northwest history. This is a must-read for the tens of thousands of storm survivors, for history buffs, and for anyone interested in the intersection of severe weather events and climate change.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

256 pages, Paperback

Published October 12, 2018

Reviews

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating details of the titled storm, which was a major event in the Pacific Northwest region in 1962. My mother often told her own personal story and memories of living through this major storm.

[Gilion Dumas · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Dodge is a veteran of natural disaster reporting, writing about the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens and the 1989 Bay Area earthquake, among other floods, earthquakes, and storms. A Deadly Wind is the first book-length history of the 1962 Columbus Day Storm that ripped through the Pacific Northwest.

The 1962 storm was the strongest windstorm to strike the Pacific Northwest in recorded history, with wind gusts reaching 127 mph in Portland. Dozens of people died and hundreds were injured. Over 50,000 homes were damaged. And the storm leveled enough timber to build 1,000,000 homes, which spurred the Asian log export market and the Oregon wine industry.

Dodge is a gifted storyteller. He deftly pulls in first-person accounts of storm survivors, newspaper articles from the time, meteorology, other weather disasters, and Pacific Northwest history, as well as descriptions of his own travels along the path of the storm.

A Deadly Wind is a lively and detailed story of this catastrophic storm and its lasting effect on the region. Columbus Day Storm survivors and anyone with an interest in Pacific Northwest history or severe weather events would enjoy this book.

[KennyO · Rating 4 out of 5]

I spent my early and mid life nowhere near the Pacific Northwest (PNW). We’ve visited friends in the region and were easily enticed to immigrate upon retirement. Wherever you live there are stories of benchmark events such as Superstorm Sandy (2012) on the Atlantic coast, the Great Alaska Earthquake (1964), the Chicago Blizzard (1967), Colorado’s Bomb Cyclone of 2019, The Perfect Storm (1991). In the PNW the story is of the Columbus Day Storm of 1962.**

This windstorm arose from a weather system that was once a typhoon in the western Pacific and moved east and north in about ten days to the North American west coast. Meteorology and communications in 1962 were nothing like what keeps us informed and entertained today. Satellites (the few there were) were primitive, radar was primitive, emergency preparedness barely extended beyond the military defense mission. When the storm struck no one was prepared. The extent of the damage was historic. As the fiftieth anniversary of the storm approached, the author, a reporter, learned that no book had been published about the historic storm. He burrowed into the records and followed leads that introduced him to storm survivors. He spoke with reporters and meteorologists who were on duty at the time. He assembled this narrative that leads us from the background to the storm’s formation, trans-Pacific movement and its “assault” on the west coast from Northern California to Vancouver Island, B.C.

Dodge was a reporter and his research and writing reflect that POV. It’s a well organized book, informative, easy to read and satisfying to me. He provides plentiful references and anyone who feels that he left out important information is welcome to use the resources he did.

** N.B. That will surely be the case until the Cascadia Subduction Zone awakes somewhere in the next couple centuries setting off a magnitude 9+ earthquake.

[Gilion Dumas · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Dodge is a veteran of natural disaster reporting, writing about the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens and the 1989 Bay Area earthquake, among other floods, earthquakes, and storms. A Deadly Wind is the first book-length history of the 1962 Columbus Day Storm that ripped through the Pacific Northwest.

The 1962 storm was the strongest windstorm to strike the Pacific Northwest in recorded history, with wind gusts reaching 127 mph in Portland. Dozens of people died and hundreds were injured. Over 50,000 homes were damaged. And the storm leveled enough timber to build 1,000,000 homes, which spurred the Asian log export market and the Oregon wine industry.

Dodge is a gifted storyteller. He deftly pulls in first-person accounts of storm survivors, newspaper articles from the time, meteorology, other weather disasters, and Pacific Northwest history, as well as descriptions of his own travels along the path of the storm.

A Deadly Wind is a lively and detailed story of this catastrophic storm and its lasting effect on the region. Columbus Day Storm survivors and anyone with an interest in Pacific Northwest history or severe weather events would enjoy this book.

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since I lived in rural Oregon Willamette Valley during this tremendous windstorm at 10 years old, reading about why there were few warnings and what happened along its path across three states and British Columbia was quite interesting.
The author has interviewed numerous people who lived through the destruction along the path. He explains how the absence of any weather instruments besides barometers, and officials' ignoring the weather forecaster flying through the windstorm off Hawaii, contributed to the lack of warning. He describes the destruction in personal terms, with impacts on people, interspersed with weather details, as you follow the storm north to Vancouver, BC.
The downside is the details are not specific to the storm and aftermath, like a football team playing in a stadium after people cleaned out the debris, but then goes on to tell you how that team did the rest of the year.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating, well-researched blow by blow (no pun intended) story of the 1962 Columbus Day storm that devastated parts of northern California, the Willamette Valley of Oregon, parts of western Washington and the Vancouver area of British Columbia in Canada. No ever pictures this part of the country rocked by hurricane force winds. From it's origins in the Marshall Islands as a typhoon to it's gathering strength as it collided with weather systems in the north, the author covers every aspect of the storm including the meteorology, the personal stories, the history of each area, the lives lost, the devastated swaths of enormous areas of forested land, and the effects upon both small towns and big cities. (Picture the Space Needle twisting from side to side in the 92 mph winds, as an example!) John Dodge did an excellent job in bringing this story to life.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well researched account of the Columbus Day Storm that hit the Pacific Northwest in October of 1962. This book is filled with human interest stories and local history. As someone who experienced the storm as a child, I was particularly interested in learning more about it. The book held my attention from start to finish, and made me feel lucky that my own experience of this horrific storm was limited to watching hats and umbrellas fly through the air, eating dinner by candlelight, and losing the cherry tree that was taller than our three story house.

[Dave E · Rating 3 out of 5]

The only book devoted to the Columbus Day Storm of 1962, the author did a nice job finding first- hand stories 50 years after the fact. In addition to writing these stories, he also frequently branched off with tangent stories, some of which worked, and some of which strayed a little too far from the main subject. Overall and easy read and still worth the while if you are interested in Pacific Northwest history.

[Carole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I lived through the Columbus Day Storm as a 5th grader, and that’s how I remember it. We lost our power, cooked hot dogs in the fireplace for dinner and saw huge trees knocked down in my grandparents older neighborhood. I had no idea about how much bigger this storm was and how much damage it caused. This very interesting book gives the bigger, much more comprehensive picture.

[Leslie Honcoop · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was one year old when we experienced this storm and have heard it referenced all my life. It was great to finally have a history of the event. As well, this book explains well the weather patterns of the region and teaches the fundamentals of air pressures and movements that make our storms. Very enlightening!

[Kevin Keating · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book. First, I'd never heard of tyhe storm or the book. Second it was kinda local. Third, the author's style is really engaging and he added a bunch of tidbits that were interesting. During the storm, some goofy neighbor had had lions and one got free and mauled a boy, who ended up being fine. But the author followed up on the boy decades later which is great. Good read!

[Kristina Harper · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting account, part scientific and part anecdotal, of a monster storm that I lived through in Vancouver, Washington, at the age of five. I wish there were a way to determine whether my memories of the late afternoon and evening of the day the storm hit are accurate, but the book informed me that they are at least possible.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much more than a simple account of the storm, the author shows how the affects of the storm shape life in the Pacific Northwest today. A humane story of the lives touched by the storm, grounded in contemporary history.

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brought back memories- I was 8 years old and have never forgotten.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book makes me want to talk to My family, who lived through this. Fascinating stories from Oregon up to BC.

[Don Kent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone who lives in the PAC NW should read this fine book lest they become compacent about the forces of nature that may accost them. The author makes the unbelievable real.

[Kathy Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably only of interest to those who remember the storm.

[Awjtf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book

[Peg Willis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting

A thorough telling of the Columbus Day Storm story from the storm's birth in the south Pacific through its landfall in California and massive destruction in Oregon and Washington before finally giving up in British Columbia. Dodge includes weather forecasts and anomalies as well as specific stories of the storm's behavior and the human cost on its fateful journey. All who remember the event will enjoy reliving it with John Dodge from the safety of their armchairs.