at appropriate places in the book the narrative serves as an acknowledgment by giving the names of a large number of men who furnished information in personal interviews, by correspondence, or in their reports which were included in the voluminous files searched in the last year.

in writing this book i had unstinted cooperation from the air weather service and its commander, brigadier general thomas moorman, from the aerological branch of the navy department and its head, captain c. j. s. mckillip, and from the chief of the weather bureau, dr. f. w. reichelderfer, and his associates in the field and the central office. in particular, major william c. anderson and associates in the office of information services of the air weather service and captain robert o. minter of the fleet weather central at miami and his associates there in airborne early warning squadron four at jacksonville were extremely helpful. of the associates of these men i wish to mention especially the assistance of lieutenant commander r. w. westover and air force captain ed vrable, both of whom are seasoned hurricane hunters.

others not mentioned in the book who contributed to the viii warning service and indirectly to the material used here were isaac m. cline and charles l. mitchell of the weather bureau. their writings supply much of the background for any work on tropical storms.

the air force, navy and weather bureau kindly supplied official photographs used here, except the wave breaking on the sea wall by the miami daily news and the drawings of sailing ships in hurricanes which are credited to colonel william reid who published them in 1850 in his book on the “law of storms.”

the author