Storm Runners

Chase’s father, John Masters, is a successful house builder who loses his wife and daughter to an auto accident, gets struck by lightning, and gives up his construction business to travel the US with his son in search of storms and the cleanup work they create. He and his partner Tomás work for free to help building owners prepare for weather disasters; when the owners call later for help with repairs, John and Tomás charge them for the work. Competent, practical, and well trained, John is expert at handling emergencies. He believes some things are fated to happen, like the bolt of lightning that changed his life, and that a person should be ready when fate happens.

Daughter of Marco Rossi, Nicole is 13, a middle schooler who competes in swimming and tends the Rossi Brothers’ Circus animals at their winter quarters in Florida. Her swimming ability helps save Chase from drowning, enables her to retrieve his go bag from the sunken bus, and saves her when she’s caught in windblown waters. Her relentless spirit and dedication to her friends, though, is what matters most as they fight through the storm on their way to the safety of her family compound.

A sixth grader, a year or two younger than Chase and Nicole but trained in track and field and large for her age, Rashawn lives next door to the Rossi circus headquarters on a huge animal refuge managed by her father. She is caught in the storm with Chase and Nicole and journeys back with them through the hurricane from their sunken school bus to the Rossi farmhouse. For a girl with no emergency training, she seems to Chase to be very cool-headed during the crisis, though she processes her fears by bursting into tears every 30 minutes or so. Her steadiness and dedication to the task of getting herself, Chase, and Nicole home safely demonstrate her courage. Chase is deeply impressed at how she responds to the crisis at a level well above her age.

A local TV news reporter in St. Petersburg during the hurricane, Cindy dislikes her news anchor, Richard, whom she considers arrogant, but she takes a liking to John, who invites her to join him in his search for his son. She decides such an adventure could be turned into a documentary—“The Man Who Got Struck by Lightning”—and agrees to come along. Unlike Richard, she is fearless and capable during an emergency.

Tomás, a master carpenter, worked for Uncle Bob for 20 years before John hired him to assist on the big road trip. He’s worth five men on the job but speaks English poorly, while John speaks no Spanish. Yet, somehow, they communicate using a “combination of Spanglish and telepathy” (9). Tomás has a wife and eight kids in Mexico, and he sends them most of his earnings and visits them once a year. Tomás is his usual unflappable self during the devastating hurricane, calmly driving through the roaring storm or using a chain saw to lop away at obstructing fallen trees as winds lash him.

A little person with dwarfism, Marco manages the Rossi Brothers Circus winter quarters in Florida for Tomás’s brother, where Chase, John, and Tomás park their vehicles in preparation for the oncoming hurricane. Marco loves the circus and his family, and when his daughter Nicole goes missing during the hurricane, he sets out into the storm to find her. He displays friendly kindness, sharp intelligence, great competence, and fearless courage in the face of everything from dangerous animals to howling hurricanes.

Momma Rossi is Marco Rossi’s mother and Nicole’s grandmother. Like Marco, she’s a little person with dwarfism; she governs the farmhouse kitchen with a firm but friendly hand and prepares food that Chase believes is the best he’s ever eaten. Momma has a strange knack for predicting the future and for knowing more about a person than she’s been told. Chase likes her at once for her cheerful enthusiasm, wisdom, and mysterious intuition.

Palm Breeze Middle School Principal Dr. Krupp is a friendly, competent administrator married to local TV news anchor Richard. When the hurricane approaches her school unexpectedly, she refuses to consider Chase’s idea that the bussed students stay overnight in the school buildings. This decision leads directly to the school bus disaster that nearly kills Chase, Nicole, and Rashawn. She stands in for bureaucrats who make inflexible, dangerous decisions in an emergency.

News anchor Richard Krupp seems to love his work most when announcing the latest developments in the Hurricane Emily story. He loves being the center of attention but is too worried about the storm’s fury to venture much further than about 15 feet from the safety of a school shelter. Krupp represents celebrities who display bravado instead of bravery.