Willie Drye has been chasing stories for more than 30 years and has written about everything from urban planning to wedding planning for magazines and newspapers across the US and Canada. His work has been published in the Washington Post, Toronto Globe and Mail, and other regional and national publications. Drye is a contributing editor for National Geographic News and has written about hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis and dozens of other topics. His stories about Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike set page-view records at NG News. He was the winner of the first place Charlie Award for Public Service from the Florida Magazine Association in 2007 for a package of stories about how Key West and the Florida Keys would be affected by a catastrophic hurricane. The stories were published in Key West Magazine. Drye's first book, Storm of the Century: The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, was praised by Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, and others, and is regarded by many meteorologists as the definitive book about this tragic and fascinating event. The book was made into a documentary film by the History Channel titled "Nature's Fury: Storm of the Century." Drye served in the US Army Medical Corps, earned an Honorable Discharge, and earned a bachelor's degree in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in North Carolina, where he divides his time between Plymouth and Wilmington.