Noah Adams

In Neville's Thrillers, Belfast's Violent Past Still Burns

Noah Adams — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 06:57:00 +0000

At 41, with long black hair, Stuart Neville looks more like the rock guitarist he used to be than the author he is now. He lives in a small town with his family — not in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the city that plays a central role in his thrillers, but just outside it.

This week, world leaders are gathered in Northern Ireland for the G-8 conference, but such a meeting would have been unthinkable before the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which brought Catholics and Protestants together in a new, tense, power-sharing government.

In Ohio Town, Okla. Twister Conjures Echoes Of 1974 Disaster

Noah Adams — Fri, 31 May 2013 21:23:00 +0000

When a tornado roars into a populated area, the change is often drastic and deadly, and it happens within minutes. As the people of Oklahoma struggle to look beyond this month's devastating storms, residents of Xenia, Ohio, are reflecting on the tornado of 1974.

Xenia, in southwest Ohio near Dayton, became well-known to the nation that year. "Everywhere I go, and I've been all over the U.S., if I say I'm from Xenia people say, 'tornado,' " says Catherine Wilson, who runs the historical society in Xenia.

Michigan Apple Orchards Blossom After A Devastating Year

Noah Adams — Tue, 14 May 2013 07:27:00 +0000

Last year, almost the entire Michigan apple crop was lost because of 80-degree days in March and then some freezing April nights. This year, the apples are back, but everything always depends on the weather.

Struggling W.Va. Town Hopes Boy Scout Camp Brings New Life

Noah Adams — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:55:00 +0000

Picture a tiny town set along a creek in West Virginia. A mountain rises from the town's eastern edge, overlooking the 1,400 people living below. Then, July comes — and 50,000 people arrive on that mountain for the National Scout Jamboree.

The town is called Mount Hope. I've heard some call it "Mount Hopeless." The town went through the long, downward slump from the boom days of deep-mine coal, when it was a grand, small-town capital of coal mining.

Now it's crumbling, struggling, but recently hopeful, because there's a veritable pot of gold on top of that nearby mountain.

Steamship Anchors A Community, But Its Days May Be Numbered

Noah Adams — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 22:17:00 +0000

On the shores of Lake Michigan, the tiny town of Ludington, Mich., is home port to the last coal-fired ferry in the U.S. The SS Badger has been making trips across the lake to Manitowoc, Wis., during the good-weather months since 1953. And as it runs, the 411-foot ferry discharges coal ash slurry directly into the lake.

An Environmental Protection Agency permit allows the Badger to dump four tons of ash into the lake daily.