Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(88)
4 star:		(73)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Students of the 1900 storm that destroyed Galveston "cut their teeth" on older books like "Death From The Sea" and "Weekend In September". But Larson's work has become the definitve.

This book and Weems' A Weekend in September, are well-written accounts that should be read by anyone who lives along or near coasts threatened by hurricanes. The description of what it is like within a killer hurricane should cause even the most unthinking person to define a safety plan for the near-inevitable arrival of such a storm. Larson's book, with its exposition of the bureaucratic workings of the Weather Bureau and its explanation of hurricane science is very satisfying. It is quite simply a terrifying account of a natural phenomenon that WILL HAPPEN AGAIN.

For vacation reading, I took along Isaac's Storm. Returning to the Gulf Coast with that powerful story in mind, I could more fully appreciate the warnings and preparations for the impending tropical storm/hurricane churning in the Gulf. The book details the horrendous effect of the 1900 hurricane on Galveston.
The next time they forecast a hurricane, read this book during the 2 or 3 days it approaches the coast. The author sets the scene of the fledgling Weather Bureau, the promise of thriving Galveston, and the lives of the people enjoying their seaside city. Knowing that over 8,000 people lost their lives makes the build up to the hurricane even more ominous.
The descriptions grip you, the scientific details of weather fit into the story seamlessly, while scenes of the tremendous battering by wind, rain and sea are horrifying. Even more horrifying is the aftermath of the storm with aid slow in coming and the dazed residents who managed to survive overwhelmed by the needed clean up effort.
Who would have thought that weather reports could be so gripping.

This is an incredible historical novel from the 1900 era which I highly recommend. When are they going to make a movie about this terrible tragedy? It's the deadliest natural disaster to hit America. This book tells the story through the eyes of the meteorologist of the day. Wonderful research, a must have! AAA+++

Russell Monllos
BOOK REVIEW

Isaac's Storm written by author Erik Larson was a different book then I had ever read before. It was thrilling, exciting, and suspenseful at the same time. Isaac Cline was a very interesting character because he was a meteorologist and it was he who the people looked to for advice throughout the book. The deadliest hurricane in America made its surprising destruction with no warning which made the book more and more suspenseful. I enjoyed the book but it took a while to get into it. The beginning to me was slow but picked up later around the middle of the book. It was this quote that made we want to continue to read every page until I knew what would happen to Galveston if and when the storm hit. "The storm swells were increasing in magnitude and frequency and were building up a storm tide which told me as plainly as through it was a written message that great danger was approaching."

I agreed with this book because another part which made it more interesting and meaningful to me was they included actual letters and messages that were sent back in forth form Galveston to the Untied States Weather Bureau located in that time in Washington DC. To me that made the book more factual and more enjoyable to read. This was a book based on the theme of survival. The hurricane came as a surprise and left thousands dead and destroyed most of the city. I would definitely recommend this book to anybody wanting to read a action book based on a true story which will make you amazed on how a town back in the1900's could survive such a huge natural disaster.

285

On September 8, 1900, a storm roared into Galveston, Texas - a storm that still has the dubious honor of causing U.S. History's greatest loss of human life due to natural disaster. I had heard very little, if anything about this tragedy or the circumstances leading to the egregious death toll, until very near its centennial. According to interviews in relation to the release of this book, this was Erik Larson's experience as well. It was only in doing research on another matter that he stumbled across descriptions of the Great Galveston Storm of 1900, and being an irrepressible weather hound, he was instantly obsessed. This is his readers' good fortune.

How the magnitude of this storm could have been so tragically misread is something that is still debated among meteorologists, but Mr. Larson shows quite clearly the confluence of human error, arrogance and politics that created an environment ripe for just such a catastrophe. Competing weather bureaus, the concern about causing "undue panic" only to have the storm be less severe than predicted (observers weren't even allowed to use the word "hurricane"), among other things, all added up to a situation that caused the deaths of between 6,000 and 10,000 people.

Along with the individual stories taken from oral histories of the survivors, which left me torn between tears and anger, I got a thorough, yet concise history of how hurricane prediction grew from mere observation of storms as they happened, to understanding of conditions that were conducive to a storm's creation. It is history and science, quickly-paced and very interesting; knowledge imparted before I was even aware I was learning something. Very sneaky, that Larson.

As much as I hate to use the phrase "reads like a novel," this book truly does. It is accurate without being dry, and moving without being exploitative. It sheds much needed light on Isaac Cline and his storm, and I'm glad that Erik Larson was distracted from his original research and led down the path to Galveston.

Word of warning - some of the stories are necessarily speculative, given the amount of time that has passed, but Larson explains his reasons and the credibility of his choices in his extensive notes. Also, natives of Galveston and descendants of the survivors will likely take issue with the less than stellar portrayal of Isaac Cline. I suspect Larson's take on Cline's actions on September 8 is relatively close to the truth, but I don't think it will sit well with some.

I haven't been so involved in a book in a long time. It was wonderful to read and it gave me a new interest in hurricanes. The author puts so much factual research in with the story telling. I could not put it down.