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

by Erik Larson

“Meteorology has ever been an apple of contention,” wrote Joseph Henry, the first director of the Smithsonian, “as if the violent commotions of the atmosphere induced a sympathetic effect on the minds of those who have attempted to study them.”

Mark Twain, merciless as always, parodied the government’s efforts: “Probable northeast to southwest winds, varying to the southward and westward and eastward, and points between, high and low barometer swapping around from place to place, probably areas of rain, snow, hail, and drought, succeeded or preceded by earthquakes, with thunder and lightning.”

People grieved, but without demonstration. “You will hear people talk without emotion of the loss of those nearest to them,” Father Kirwin said. “We are in that condition that we cannot feel.”

“Time lost can never be recovered,” he said, “and this should be written in flaming letters everywhere.”