Keeping with a theme of the early 1900's, and after reading Larson's Devil in the White City, I decided to check out one of his earlier works, Isaac's Storm. Right up front, this book also suffers from not enough pictures. Larson did a lot of research on this topic, as shown in his Notes. He even tells you (if you spend the time to read the notes), that he found some excellent pictures of the aftermath of the hurricane. Nowhere in the book does he share these gems. But luckily the two things that he did include, a map of the storm path and a map of Galveston with the damaged areas, I referred back to a lot.

Another outstanding book about turn of the century America. In this novel, Larson tells the story of the THE hurricane that hit Galveston, Texas, in 1900. It is a book about the storm and also the man whose job was to forecast the weather in the newly formed Weather Service, Isaac Cline. It is also the story of two towns, Houston and Galveston, that were jockeying for the deep port of the south. The early weather forecasters relied on the telegraph, their instruments, and visual clues as to how the weather was going to be. They were also very confident that the weather would perform in known patterns. That includes hurricanes. In fact, Cline even published a paper on why Galveston would not be hit by hurricanes. They also thought that if a hurricane did go through the Caribbean, it would move up the coast of Florida, not head into the Gulf of Mexico. This storm proved them all wrong.

Larson does an excellent job of describing the weather leading up to the hurricane, the sight of it, and the total destruction of Galveston. By some accounts, 6,000 people lost their lives in this hurricane. The narrative that occurs after the storm is as unbelievable as what came before it. Another great book by Erik Larson and another one that comes highly recommended.

By the way, in Galveston there was once an orphanage where 93 children lost their lives. On that site now stands a Wal-Mart. And, basically, why did Houston take the deep port trophy from Galveston? It wasn't really the hurricane, it was the discovery of oil at Spindletop outside of Houston. Geography really hurt Galveston.

My first thoughts after finishing Isaac's storm was, that for such a big and devastating storm, it didn't seem do it justice. I wanted understanding (why didn't people leave?). I wanted some PICTURES!!.
As luck had it, someone who checked out the book before me had tucked a newspaper clipping pic in the inside flap, of the Bishops Palace and surrounding survivors w/ tons of lumber stacked up against them. THANK YOU whoever you are. I returned the picture to the flap.

Whatever happened to Dr. Samuel O.Young the amateur meteorologist? Sam kept a diary. And it seems was the only proactive person in town, in that he telegraphed his wife and children warning them not to come to Galveston because in his opinion, a big storm was coming.

One reviewer here claims Cline is a hero in Galveston but "Cline gave his official meteorological opinion that the thought of a hurricane ever doing any serious harm to Galveston was "An absurd delusion". Many residents had called for a seawall to protect the city, but Cline's statement helped to prevent its construction."
"Local legend has it that Cline took it upon himself to travel along the beach and other low-lying areas warning people personally of the storm's approach. This is based on Cline's own reports and has been called into question in recent years.
Cline did issue a hurricane warning without permission from the Bureau's central office in Washington, D.C. but by that point the city was already under water. I don't recall reading that Cline actually told anyone to get off the island..

I enjoyed the book but minus one star for lack of pictures.

I hear that John Edward Weems' book 'A Weekend in September' is also recommended reading on the 1900 storm.

"Isaac's Storm" is a work of fiction based on a real-time tragedy. It tells the story of the hurricane that devastated Galveston and provides impressive details on the history and science of meteorology. For the story-telling aspect of the novel, Mr. Larson uses Isaac Cline, Galveston's weather observer at the time.

Erik Larson's committment to research and detail is impeccable. I wish he had been my history teacher in high school!