I recently came to the realization that Joplin's tornado of May 22, 2011, is prologue to the real story. The storm is not the climax; it is the starting point. Regardless, I still attempted to portray the Joplin storm as it happens. Again, there is no way to adequately describe, in words or pictures, what the storm really looked, sounded, and felt like. There really is no way to understand the fear, anxiety, and uncertainty that comes in the immediate hours with debris still fluttering from the sky and the rumble still ringing in our ears.
That part is still in Out of the Wind, but that part is just the beginning. Joplin's story unfolds in the aftermath. Joplin's story is revealed in the days and weeks after the storm. If the tornado is the main character, then the main character in this story dies in the first pages. In Out of the Wind, the tornado is not the nemesis, the antagonist, or the monster. The real monster appears in the guise of the emotions and relationships of the human characters.
Get your copy of Out of the Wind and read it for yourself.