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Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
 
 

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Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History [Paperback]

Erik Larson (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (195 customer reviews)
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Product Description

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On September 8, 1900, a massive hurricane slammed into Galveston, Texas. A tidal surge of some four feet in as many seconds inundated the city, while the wind destroyed thousands of buildings. By the time the water and winds subsided, entire streets had disappeared and as many as 10,000 were dead--making this the worst natural disaster in America's history.

In Isaac's Storm, Erik Larson blends science and history to tell the story of Galveston, its people, and the hurricane that devastated them. Drawing on hundreds of personal reminiscences of the storm, Larson follows individuals through the fateful day and the storm's aftermath. There's Louisa Rollfing, who begged her husband, August, not to go into town the morning of the storm; the Ursuline Sisters at St. Mary's orphanage who tied their charges to lengths of clothesline to keep them together; Judson Palmer, who huddled in his bathroom with his family and neighbors, hoping to ride out the storm. At the center of it all is Isaac Cline, employee of the nascent Weather Bureau, and his younger brother--and rival weatherman--Joseph. Larson does an excellent job of piecing together Isaac's life and reveals that Isaac was not the quick-thinking hero he claimed to be after the storm ended. The storm itself, however, is the book's true protagonist--and Larson describes its nuances in horrific detail.

At times the prose is a bit too purple, but Larson is engaging and keeps the book's tempo rising in pace with the wind and waves. Overall, Isaac's Storm recaptures at a time when, standing in the first year of the century, Americans felt like they ruled the world--and that even the weather was no real threat to their supremacy. Nature proved them wrong. --Sunny Delaney --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Torqued by drama and taut with suspense, this absorbing narrative of the 1900 hurricane that inundated Galveston, Tex., conveys the sudden, cruel power of the deadliest natural disaster in American history. Told largely from the perspective of Isaac Cline, the senior U.S. Weather Bureau official in Galveston at the time, the story considers an era when "the hubris of men led them to believe they could disregard even nature itself." As barometers plummet and wind gauges are plucked from their moorings, Larson (Lethal Passage) cuts cinematically from the eerie "eyewall" of the hurricane to the mundane hubbub of a lunchroom moments before it capitulates to the arriving winds, from the neat pirouette of Cline's house amid rising waters to the bridge of the steamship Pensacola, tossed like flotsam on the roiling seas. Most intriguingly, Larson details the mistakes that led bureau officials to dismiss warnings about the storm, which killed over 6000 and destroyed a third of the island city. The government's weather forecasting arm registered not only temperature and humidity but also political climate, civic boosterism and even sibling rivalries. America's patronizing stance toward Cuba, for instance, shut down forecasts from Cuban meteorologists, who had accurately predicted the Galveston storm's course and true scale, even as U.S. weather officials issued mollifying bulletins calling for mere rain and high winds. Larson expertly captures the power of the storm itself and the ironic, often catastrophic consequences of the unpredictable intersection of natural force and human choice. Major ad/promo; author tour; simultaneous Random House audio; foreign rights sold in Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan and the U.K. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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First Sentence
THROUGHOUT THE NIGHT of Friday, September 7, 1900, Isaac Monroe Cline found himself waking to a persistent sense of something gone wrong. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Customer Reviews

195 Reviews
5 star:
 (88)
4 star:
 (73)
3 star:
 (17)
2 star:
 (10)
1 star:
 (7)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (195 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4.0 out of 5 stars A nice gripping tale, Mar 22 2005
By 
NorthVan Dave (BC, Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History (Hardcover)
I liked this book. It was well written, and did a good job of holding my attention chapter after chapter. Similiar in writing style to Larson's other novel 'Devil in the White City' (which should come as no surprise, as that novel was written after this one) Larson dishes out bits of information in each chapter, giving the reader just enough tid bits to ensure they'll keep coming back for more.

In addition to providing bits about the people who were present when the storm hit Galveston, Larson has also done a great job of tracking the storms trajectory. He's been able to write what the meteorologists at the time thought of the storm, contrasting it with what we now know about storm morphology. The combination of history, storm knowledge, and the perception of storms in the 1900s, all play well together.

While one might think a book about a hurricane, hitting the Texas coastline in 1900 would be a dull read, the opposite is infact the case. The story encourages the reader to turn the page and find out how everyone faired once the storm had subsided, and what the over-all impacts were to the US weather service, who had failed to accurately guage the storm's capacity.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Another solid Larson book, Jun 18 2004
By 
R. Harris (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History (Paperback)
Just as in Devil in the White City, Larson brings a time and place to astonishing life in this tale of turn of the century scientific hubris. Galveston literally jumps off the page, with every ill-fated decision draped with tragic historical significance. As with other Larson titles, the prose can occasionally drag with details that may not be immediately relevant or interesting; however, sticking with the narrative is nicely rewarded by page-turning drama once the hurrican kicks into gear. Overall, a compelling read about a shocking disaster that many of us know nothing about.
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4.0 out of 5 stars WOW - great and scary...., May 28 2004
By 
Jeffrey Roberts (Long Island, New York United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History (Paperback)
Another one of those tremendous events that most people today know nothing of. More people died in this hurricane than many battles fought and this gets little to no attention.
Go read it.
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