Braving Home is
authored by Jake Halpern. He became curious why people live in
worn places that have issues with
weather or
natural disasters on a regular basis. As a result, he went to live with people for a week or two who
voluntarily lived in places that most people would find impossible.
The first person he interviewed was Thad
Knight. He lives in Princeville,
North Carolina. Because of the lay of the land, this town periodically gets
flooded. Thad chose to stay in the town during a flood. He had all sorts of good stories on the
history of the town and experiences he's seen because of floods. Thad stays because he feels a
bond with the town, it's
loyalty that kept him there instead of going to the
Red Cross shelter.
Next Jake went to visit Whitter,
Alaska. Whitter is located north of
Anchorage, deep inside the
mountains. There is a 30
story apartment in there that houses the residents. One of the residents, Babs Reynolds, has lived there for nearly 30 years. She initially moved there to avoid her
abusive husband who she was afraid was going to kill her. Whitter provided a lot of people similar
security because at the time, the only entrance to the town was a lone
train. The train was run by the
mayor, so if the mayor knew your story, he'd keep the bad people out of town. People spend months inside in Whitter to avoid the cold. They get approximately 300
inches of
snow a year and it's not uncommon to see sustained
wind speeds of 60
mph for weeks on end. Interestingly enough, once they installed some
windmills to produce
power for the town. They broke after a few months. A repairman opened them up and noticed the insides had become
charcoal. There was so much wind generating electricity that it burned the inside up.
After Whitter was probably my favorite scene, about Jack Thompson living in
Hawaii. Not only was he living in Hawaii, as that isn't unusual. However, his house was surrounded by
lava flowing down from a
volcano. When the volcano started destroying his
subdivision he chose to stay. Almost 20 years later, he is still residing there. His house is a popular fly-by destination for the tourists in
helicopters. Personally, his situation is the most far-out.
Jake's next destination was Millie Decker's house in Malibu,
California. Most people picture Malibu has being this
rich area - it is. However, Millie lives a little bit out of town on a
ranch. Every year the area gets struck by the
Santa Ana winds and becomes in danger of being hit by a
forest fire. She grew up in the area and learned the ways to prevent her house from burning down. In her 80+ years living, her house has never burned.
Finally, Jake went to Grand
Isle,
Louisiana. Grand Isle has been the target of a few hurricanes, including the terrible
Hurricane Betsy. Everytime there is a hurricane, a few people stay in town and rough it out. Surprisingly enough, not many of them
die either, as they have learned how to cope. Last resorts tend to be that they tie themselves to large trees with
rope or their long hair.
I would have gone into more detail about the book. However, I don't want to
spoil any of the reading for anyone as the reasons people stay are
laced in the stories and summarized in the
epilogue.