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

Sep 18, 2012 Rebecca Huston rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, 20th-century, america, texas

At the turn of the twentieth century, one of the worst storms in recorded history bore down on Galveston, Texas, nearly wiping it off the face of the map. Weather forecasting was still a very inexact science, and the inhabitants hardly knew that it was coming, with just a few people in Cuba knowing what was going on. Except for one man, the Isaac of the title. How the storm was foretold and tracked, and how the people of Galveston survived is the main narrative of the book. I rather enjoyed it, ...more

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Jan 08, 2023 CatReader rated it really liked it

Shelves: slco, cc

I lived in Houston on the Gulf Coast from summer 2005-summer 2009, getting a baptism of fire in the mercurial destruction of Atlantic hurricane season. Houston was flooded by refugees after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and later was spared a direct hit by Hurricane Rita that same season. Galveston was a fun beach town to go visit on the weekends, full of tourist attractions and frame houses built precariously within a few hundred feet of the coast. I remember taking a class in the spring 2008 abou I lived in Houston on the Gulf Coast from summer 2005-summer 2009, getting a baptism of fire in the mercurial destruction of Atlantic hurricane season. Houston was flooded by refugees after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and later was spared a direct hit by Hurricane Rita that same season. Galveston was a fun beach town to go visit on the weekends, full of tourist attractions and frame houses built precariously within a few hundred feet of the coast. I remember taking a class in the spring 2008 about Galveston specifically, how it was facing many ecological threats including lack of preparedness for the next big hurricane, as the 17-foot seawall constructed after the hurricane of 1900 (the topic of this book) was inadequate to protect against storm surge by another hurricane of its magnitude. Fast forward to fall 2008, and those predictions were proven accurate when Hurricane Ike made a direct hit to Galveston, surged over the seawall in spots, and led to massive flooding, and widespread destruction, similar to the 1900 storm, though with much less loss of human life (though evacuation orders and appreciation of the gravity of the storm were not heeded as much as they should have, similar to the 1900 storm). In downtown Houston, where I waited out the storm, it was days-weeks before power was restored, damage was cleared, and life returned to normal, compared to years in Galveston. I decided after that that my nerves could no longer take living on the Gulf Coast, since I don't share the resilience and outlook of the millions who still live along the Gulf and keep rebuilding. Per Wikipedia, the 1900 storm caused an estimated $35 million in damages in the US ($1.2 billion today), Ike cost $30 billion in 2008, and Harvey cost $125 billion in 2017 (tying with 2005's Katrina).

I enjoy Erik Larson's historical nonfiction - Devil in the White City being my favorite. I enjoyed this book on the 1900 storm, though I feel bad that Larson decided to name the book after, and lay much of the blame on, Galveston forecaster Isaac Cline. The failures that led to accurate recognition of the hurricane's danger and forecast track, and lack of adequate warning for the Galveston area residents, were largely systemic and out of Cline's control. I also felt like Larson flirted with the biggest sin of historical nonfiction - speculating about people's thoughts and feelings outside of what's documented in the historical record, as well as the more minor sin of overly dramatic storytelling (though this event was dramatic indeed).
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