Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
by Erik Larson
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History. Science. Nonfiction. HTML:At the dawn of the twentieth century, a great confidence suffused America. Isaac Cline was one of the era's new men, a scientist who believed he knew all there was to know about the motion of clouds and the behavior of storms. The idea that a hurricane could damage the city of Galveston, Texas, where he was based, was to him preposterous, "an absurd delusion." It was 1900, a year when America felt bigger and stronger than ever before. Nothing in nature show more could hobble the gleaming city of Galveston, then a magical place that seemed destined to become the New York of the Gulf.That August, a strange, prolonged heat wave gripped the nation and killed scores of people in New York and Chicago. Odd things seemed to happen everywhere: A plague of crickets engulfed Waco. The Bering Glacier began to shrink. Rain fell on Galveston with greater intensity than anyone could remember. Far away, in Africa, immense thunderstorms blossomed over the city of Dakar, and great currents of wind converged. A wave of atmospheric turbulence slipped from the coast of western Africa. Most such waves faded quickly. This one did not.
In Cuba, America's overconfidence was made all too obvious by the Weather Bureau's obsession with controlling hurricane forecasts, even though Cuba's indigenous weathermen had pioneered hurricane science. As the bureau's forecasters assured the nation that all was calm in the Caribbean, Cuba's own weathermen fretted about ominous signs in the sky. A curious stillness gripped Antigua. Only a few unlucky sea captains discovered that the storm had achieved an intensity no man alive had ever experienced.
In Galveston, reassured by Cline's belief that no hurricane could seriously damage the city, there was celebration. Children played in the rising water. Hundreds of people gathered at the beach to marvel at the fantastically tall waves and gorgeous pink sky, until the surf began ripping the city's beloved beachfront apart. Within the next few hours Galveston would endure a hurricane that to this day remains the nation's deadliest natural disaster. In Galveston alone at least 6,000 people, possibly as many as 10,000, would lose their lives, a number far greater than the combined death toll of the Johnstown Flood and 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.
And Isaac Cline would experience his own unbearable loss.
Meticulously researched and vividly written, Isaac's Storm is based on Cline's own letters, telegrams, and reports, the testimony of scores of survivors, and our latest understanding of the hows and whys of great storms. Ultimately, however, it is the story of what can happen when human arrogance meets nature's last great uncontrollable force. As such, Isaac's Storm carries a warning for our time. show less
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It's hurricane season, and as Hurricane Dorian devastated the Bahamas and threatened American's southern Atlantic coast (and while scientists corrected an infantile politician on the projected storm track), I spent time reading about a portentous hurricane that tiptoed noisily but without notice from the western coast of Africa across the Carribean and the Gulf of Mexico to practically obliterate Galveston, Texas. The year was 1900, and (weirdly) the landfall date was September 8 (I say weirdly because I completed my read on 9/6/19).
Looking on-line at archival photos taken following that (unnamed) storm was like looking at news photos of the Bahamas. (Isaac's Storm, sadly, has no photos and the map depicting the areas damaged by the show more storm is irritatingly out of sync with the narrative.) Here and there are scattered still-standing structures, some canted, most missing roofs, porches, and windows. The ground, roads, walkways all are covered layers deep with boards scattered every whichaway. Neither the text nor the photos can convey the stench of decaying corpses—not only human remains, but hundreds and hundreds of horses, family pets, livestock. The death toll can't be known. People were swept out to sea, buried beneath the rubble. The smell, the logistics, and public health concerns prompted on-the-spot burials and on-the-spot pyres
The focus of Erik Larson's narrative is just how this event happened, and most significantly, why there was no warning. The short answers: ignorance, folly, and hubris. For the long answers, do read the book. Even the most informed and thoughtful "experts" at the 19th century's close did not understand—at all— the science of hurricanes, cyclones, and tornados. But the "experts" were loath to project any uncertainty. What they didn't know killed a lot of people.
Two thumbs up. show less
Looking on-line at archival photos taken following that (unnamed) storm was like looking at news photos of the Bahamas. (Isaac's Storm, sadly, has no photos and the map depicting the areas damaged by the show more storm is irritatingly out of sync with the narrative.) Here and there are scattered still-standing structures, some canted, most missing roofs, porches, and windows. The ground, roads, walkways all are covered layers deep with boards scattered every whichaway. Neither the text nor the photos can convey the stench of decaying corpses—not only human remains, but hundreds and hundreds of horses, family pets, livestock. The death toll can't be known. People were swept out to sea, buried beneath the rubble. The smell, the logistics, and public health concerns prompted on-the-spot burials and on-the-spot pyres
The focus of Erik Larson's narrative is just how this event happened, and most significantly, why there was no warning. The short answers: ignorance, folly, and hubris. For the long answers, do read the book. Even the most informed and thoughtful "experts" at the 19th century's close did not understand—at all— the science of hurricanes, cyclones, and tornados. But the "experts" were loath to project any uncertainty. What they didn't know killed a lot of people.
Two thumbs up. show less
Isaac Cline was a meteorologist in the fledgling National Weather Service on September 8, 1900, a day that turned on a dime and impacted over 6,000 lives in the Gulf town of Galveston, Texas. Erik Larson has written his trademark terrific narrative non-fiction account, using Cline’s own letters, telegraphs and reports, as well as the testimony of survivors of what is now known to be the greatest national disaster in American history. The most interesting part is that the hurricane that barreled down the Gulf and smashed head on into the Texas coast was never even identified as a hurricane.
I really enjoyed this account of how the National Weather Service bungled the prediction of the hurricane, bickered with the meteorologists in Cuba, show more whom they considered alarmists, and refused to admit their errors. The morning of the storm, Cline still wouldn’t call the gale force winds by the name hurricane. The arrogance of these scientists was incredible and the lives lost in the disaster heartbreaking but Larson was absolutely terrific in the telling of the story.
In 1891, Cline wrote a report stating that Galveston didn’t need a seawall because the chances of it being the target of a storm the magnitude of which a seawall would deem necessary just didn’t exist. It would never see a hurricane. That was just “absurd delusion.” The arrogance of the man was mind-boggling. And yet, on that September day in 1900, an immense hurricane unleashed its power on the population of this up and coming town:
This is an unputdownable account of the arrogance of man’s belief in what he wants to believe and the sheer power of nature and very highly recommended. show less
I really enjoyed this account of how the National Weather Service bungled the prediction of the hurricane, bickered with the meteorologists in Cuba, show more whom they considered alarmists, and refused to admit their errors. The morning of the storm, Cline still wouldn’t call the gale force winds by the name hurricane. The arrogance of these scientists was incredible and the lives lost in the disaster heartbreaking but Larson was absolutely terrific in the telling of the story.
In 1891, Cline wrote a report stating that Galveston didn’t need a seawall because the chances of it being the target of a storm the magnitude of which a seawall would deem necessary just didn’t exist. It would never see a hurricane. That was just “absurd delusion.” The arrogance of the man was mind-boggling. And yet, on that September day in 1900, an immense hurricane unleashed its power on the population of this up and coming town:
”The storm’s trajectory made Galveston the victim of two storm surges, the first from the bay, and the second from the Gulf, and ensured moreover that the Gulf portion would be exceptionally severe.” (Page 198)
This is an unputdownable account of the arrogance of man’s belief in what he wants to believe and the sheer power of nature and very highly recommended. show less
Both my adult son and I would put Erik Larson's Isaac's Storm on our lists of top nonfiction books that everyone should read. We often refer to it in conversations. Not only is it about the devastating hurricane that hit Galveston in 1900, but all of the mistakes made that prevented any prediction of a hurricane. It's a brief history of weather forecasting. It's about how hubris and ambition can sometimes prevent accurate gathering of data. It's about how the combination of personalities in the right place allowed the existence of an hurricane to be basically ignored until it made landfall and wiped out an entire city. It's about the deception and misinformation some people perpetrated in order to cover up their errors in the aftermath. show more It is a nonfiction book with a story so compelling that it reads like fiction. It's a book any weather geek or disaster freak will love.
Now that I've established that I love this book, let me also add that Erik Larson is a good writer. Often in nonfiction books a case can be made that there are "boring" parts, sections of the book that move too slowly, especially when compared to a fiction book. It's a difficult balance to pass along accurate information, historically or technically, while keeping the book itself satisfying and interesting. In Isaac's Storm Erik Larsen was pitch-perfect. Isaac's Storm is Very Highly Recommended - one of the best. http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/ show less
Now that I've established that I love this book, let me also add that Erik Larson is a good writer. Often in nonfiction books a case can be made that there are "boring" parts, sections of the book that move too slowly, especially when compared to a fiction book. It's a difficult balance to pass along accurate information, historically or technically, while keeping the book itself satisfying and interesting. In Isaac's Storm Erik Larsen was pitch-perfect. Isaac's Storm is Very Highly Recommended - one of the best. http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/ show less
Meticulously researched and compellingly told, this book is an account of the hurricane that hit Galveston, Texas in 1900. As a child, I lived in Houston and took short beach vacations to Galveston. I had heard about this tragedy, so I was interested to find out the details of how a disaster of such magnitude had occurred with so little warning. The author has a way to bring what could easily be dry material to life in an engaging manner. I learned about the history of the weather service and more about how hurricanes develop. I recommend this book to those interested in meteorology, natural disasters, history or anyone who lives in areas prone to hurricanes. Even though hurricane tracking and warnings have improved dramatically since show more 1900, there is still much more to be learned, as we unfortunately found out with Hurricane Katrina. show less
As usual, this author delivers a non-fiction read just as smooth as the best novel. Larson focused on the U.S. Meteorology units and their total lack of recognizing the seriousness of the situation. There was a lot of political in-fighting and the greater good was ignored. Gruesome descriptions of those who fought for their lives and the lives of their children and then were swept away--Galveston, 1900. 336 pages 4 1/2 stars.
Isaac's Storm is a masterpiece of narrative non-fiction, tracing the systematic arrogance of the US weather service at the end of the 19th century and the devastating Galveston Hurricane of 1900 through the figure of Isaac Cline, the US Weather Service bureau chief in the city.
First, the systematic arrogance. America at the end of the 19th century was a country coming into its own power, having conquered a continent, beaten the Spanish, and (mostly) buried the strife of the Civil War. Americans were rational, muscular, confident, and ready to conquer the world. The nascent weather service was a mirror of society, taking in observations from sober and skilled young men across the country and spitting out reliable reports. Well, show more definitely reports, reliability was another problem.
The basic issue was that given the technology of the period, good forecasts were more a matter of luck than skill. Particularly for hurricanes, there was no way to observe them at sea, and damaging storms tended to down telegraph lines to transmit warnings back to headquarters. In typical period racism, American officials discounted the skills of Cuban meteorologists as emotional superstition, and banned them from using the telegraph system. In order to prevent politically damaging false alarms, the phrase 'hurricane' could only be used on expressed orders from Washington DC.
The city of Galveston was a second order of arrogance, built on a sandy island barely above sea level between the Gulf of Mexico and an interior bay. Objectively, Galveston was fantastically vulnerable to flooding. City officials argued that hurricanes would never strike Galveston, and if they did, various hydrographic features would protect the city. This was a matter of pride and of wealth, as Galveston and Houston were engaged in a race to be Texas' primary city.
Hurricanes that enter the Gulf of Mexico are rare compared to Atlantic hurricanes, but can be especially devastating because the Gulf is an expanse of humid heat that hits the cyclone engine of the hurricane like a nitrous oxide boost. The Great Storm slammed into Galveston on the evening of September 8th like a divinely ordained missile.
At first the inhabitants delighted at the unexpected coolness in the midst of a summer heatwave, and the entertainment of immense waves. Then the buildings on the shore started to collapse, water rose in the streets, and slate roof tiles whipped through the air like bullets. At the storm intensified, people sought shelter wherever they could. And then all too often, the buildings they sheltered in gave up against the forces that assaulted the city, and the people were cast out into the night to die. Families were torn apart by wind and water, some groups expiring entirely and others leaving a traumatized survivor to make sense of the devastation. Isaac lost his wife and several children, though some of his family survived.
Isaac's Storm is compelling and masterfully written, and though it came out years before Katrina, Harvey, and Sandy wrecked their havoc, it remains a prescient warning in an age of larger storms and rising seas. Compared to Isaac's generation, we have better tools to see the storm coming, but prediction is still not safety. show less
First, the systematic arrogance. America at the end of the 19th century was a country coming into its own power, having conquered a continent, beaten the Spanish, and (mostly) buried the strife of the Civil War. Americans were rational, muscular, confident, and ready to conquer the world. The nascent weather service was a mirror of society, taking in observations from sober and skilled young men across the country and spitting out reliable reports. Well, show more definitely reports, reliability was another problem.
The basic issue was that given the technology of the period, good forecasts were more a matter of luck than skill. Particularly for hurricanes, there was no way to observe them at sea, and damaging storms tended to down telegraph lines to transmit warnings back to headquarters. In typical period racism, American officials discounted the skills of Cuban meteorologists as emotional superstition, and banned them from using the telegraph system. In order to prevent politically damaging false alarms, the phrase 'hurricane' could only be used on expressed orders from Washington DC.
The city of Galveston was a second order of arrogance, built on a sandy island barely above sea level between the Gulf of Mexico and an interior bay. Objectively, Galveston was fantastically vulnerable to flooding. City officials argued that hurricanes would never strike Galveston, and if they did, various hydrographic features would protect the city. This was a matter of pride and of wealth, as Galveston and Houston were engaged in a race to be Texas' primary city.
Hurricanes that enter the Gulf of Mexico are rare compared to Atlantic hurricanes, but can be especially devastating because the Gulf is an expanse of humid heat that hits the cyclone engine of the hurricane like a nitrous oxide boost. The Great Storm slammed into Galveston on the evening of September 8th like a divinely ordained missile.
At first the inhabitants delighted at the unexpected coolness in the midst of a summer heatwave, and the entertainment of immense waves. Then the buildings on the shore started to collapse, water rose in the streets, and slate roof tiles whipped through the air like bullets. At the storm intensified, people sought shelter wherever they could. And then all too often, the buildings they sheltered in gave up against the forces that assaulted the city, and the people were cast out into the night to die. Families were torn apart by wind and water, some groups expiring entirely and others leaving a traumatized survivor to make sense of the devastation. Isaac lost his wife and several children, though some of his family survived.
Isaac's Storm is compelling and masterfully written, and though it came out years before Katrina, Harvey, and Sandy wrecked their havoc, it remains a prescient warning in an age of larger storms and rising seas. Compared to Isaac's generation, we have better tools to see the storm coming, but prediction is still not safety. show less
Following the trail of the Johnstown Flood, the next book on my list was Isaac's Storm. Again, it is nonfiction but Larson tells the story so well that it flows like a novel. His descriptions of the storm are absolutely poetic...my favorite is "he heard the susurrus of curtains luffed by the breeze." The storm is actually a character in the story. Not to worry for those rational minded readers; the book is packed with facts and data. I was struck by the parallel of the attitudes of Americans in this time to those of the British who built the Titanic (I highly recommend Walter Lord's A Night to Remember if you're interested in learning more about that). Isaac's Storm is an insightful look not only at one of the worst natural disasters in show more American history, but at the people and attitudes that shaped the time. show less
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Author Information
15+ Works 57,038 Members
Erik Larson was born in Brooklyn on January 3, 1954. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania and went to graduate school at Columbia University. Larson worked for the Wall Street Journal and then began writing non-fiction books. He is the bestselling author of the National Book Award finalist and Edgar Award-winning, The show more Devil in the White City, which has been optioned for a feature film by Leonardo DiCaprio. He also wrote In the Garden of the Beasts, Issac's Storm, Thunderstruck and The Naked Consumer. Larson has taught non-fiction writing at San Francisco State University, the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, and the University of Oregon. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Some Editions
Awards and Honors
Awards
Distinctions
Work Relationships
Has as a student's study guide
Common Knowledge
- Original title
- Isaac's Storm
- Original publication date
- 1999
- People/Characters
- Isaac Monroe Cline; Joseph Cline
- Important places
- Galveston, Texas, USA; Gulf of Mexico; Galveston Island, Texas, USA; Galveston Bay, Texas, USA; Cuba; Belen Observatory, Cuba
- Important events
- Disaster: Hurricane; Galveston Hurricane of 1900
- Related movies
- Isaac's Storm (2004 | IMDb)
- Epigraph
- Washington, D.C.
Sept. 9, 1900
To: Manager, Western Union
Houston, Texas
Do you hear anything about Galveston?
Willis L. Moore,
Chief, U.S. Weather Bureau - Dedication
- For Chris, Kristen, Lauren, and Erin.
- First words
- Throughout the night of Friday, September 7, 1900, Isaac Monroe Cline found himself waking up to a persistent state of something gone wrong.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Once, in a time long past when men believed they could part mountains, a very different building stood in the Wal-Mart's place, and behind its mist-clouded windows ninety-three children who did not know better happily awaited the coming of the sea.
- Publisher's editor
- Prashker, Betty (Vintage Books)
- Original language
- English
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 976.4139
- Canonical LCC
- F394.G2
Classifications
- Genres
- General Nonfiction, History, Science & Nature, Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir
- DDC/MDS
- 976.4139 — History & geography History of North America South central United States Texas Gulf Coast and East Texas Galveston-area Gulf Coast and Counties South of Houston Galveston County
- LCC
- F394 .G2 — Local History of the United States, Canada and Latin America United States local history Texas
- BISAC
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- Reviews
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- Languages
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- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 33
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 28