February 2013, brought “Nemo,” a blizzard and a hurricane that simultaneously hit the East Coast causing the most devastating storm of the century. They called it a “bombogenesis.” 

People flocked to the shelter for warmth, food and safety. Some needed electricity to run their oxygen concentrators, feeding pumps, and CPAP machines. But the food never arrived and when the power shut down, nothing worked and including the heat. Then a woman disappeared. 

This story is told by the award-winning author, Terri Arthur, RN, the Red Cross nurse who was assigned to the emergency shelter to manage the medical clinic. Arthur gives an account of good intentions, erratic bosses, mounting surprises, and unforeseen consequences swirling out of control. “I pondered that I might have failed in some way,” she writes. “Years later, this still haunts me. I continue to wonder what else I could have done.”