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

by Erik Larson

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.”

Strong winds blowing over some of Minnesota’s biggest northern lakes will pile ice to the height of a McDonald’s sign.

GALVESTON COUNTED ITS dead. The city conducted a census and in October reported a tally of 3,406 confirmed deaths. Eight of the city’s twelve wards had lost 10 percent or more of their residents. The storm killed 21 percent of the Twelfth Ward, 19 percent of the Tenth. The Galveston News published its final death roster on October 7, and listed 4,263 names. Early in 1901, the Morrison and Fourmy Company, which published the city directory, conducted its own canvass and found an overall loss in population of 8,124. Two thousand of these had simply moved from the city, the company believed. That left 6,000 dead. Informal estimates placed the toll at 8,000, even 10,000, not including the several thousand deaths that occurred in low-lying towns on the mainland. No one knew how many bodies still rested in the sea.

meteorologists still considered Galveston one of the most likely targets for the next great hurricane disaster.