Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History Hardcover - 1999
by Erik Larson
The large audience that drove "The Perfect Storm" high on national bestseller lists is sure to welcome this superb narrative of the extreme hurricane that struck Galveston, Texas, in 1900, leaving at least 8,000 dead in its wake. An unforgettable story of the conflict between human hubris and the last great uncontrollable force, "Isaac's Storm" offers a cautionary tale for the millennium.
From the jacket flap
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 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 seriouslydamage 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.
Details
- Title Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
- Author Erik Larson
- Binding Hardcover
- Edition First Edition
- Pages 336
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Crown Publishing Group (NY), New York
- Date 1999-08-24
- ISBN 9780609602331 / 0609602330
- Weight 1.3 lbs (0.59 kg)
- Dimensions 9.28 x 6.37 x 1.08 in (23.57 x 16.18 x 2.74 cm)
- Reading level 1020
-
Themes
- Chronological Period: 1900-1919
- Cultural Region: Gulf Coast
- Cultural Region: South
- Geographic Orientation: Texas
- Locality: Galveston-Texas City, Texas
- Library of Congress subjects Galveston (Tex.), Galveston (Tex.) - History - 20th century
- Library of Congress Catalog Number 99-25515
- Dewey Decimal Code 976.413
Excerpt
Media reviews
Citations
- Booklist, 06/15/1999, Page 1739
- Entertainment Weekly, 03/13/2015, Page 58
- Kirkus Reviews, 07/01/1999, Page 1022
- Library Journal, 05/01/1999, Page 0
- New York Times, 09/12/1999, Page 46
- Outside, 09/01/1999, Page 139
- Publishers Weekly, 06/14/1999, Page 56
- School Library Journal, 03/01/2000, Page 266
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