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

Issac's Storm

I love to read history books, however some can be hard to get into. This is not the case with this book! I read it in less than a week. It was very well written and gave a gripping account of a horrible storm. It really makes you realize how lucky we are today to have advance hurricane warnings!

5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

If you are at all interested in weather events, this is excellent.

This was very well written with a great deal of historical research presented in a very readable, non-dry narrative. The book chronicles events leading up to and including accounts of the hurricane of 1900 that wiped out Galveston. It is seen in large part via the chief meteorologist there at the time. This is not the usual type of book I would read. I expected to be bored by the meteorology information, and though there was some in the first of the book I didn't find enthralling, it was worth reading to understand the whole picture. Once the actual hurricane accounts started, I couldn't put the book down! The 1900 hurricane in Galveston was a tragedy that could have been mitigated greatly in terms of massive loss of lives had only the warning signs been investigated. There was arrogance on the part of the main meteorologist in Galveston, and in addition there were also in-house political issues among U.S. weather service leaders and personnel that stifled communication or collaboration. The accounts of the survivors who lived through the hurricane are horrifying but riveting.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

This is seriously an amazing book.

Isaac's Storm was a great book. It takes place in Galveston, TX on September 8th and 9th, 1900. There was a hurricane offcoast and Washington DC told Isaac Cline that it was no threat, it was great weather, so he believed them. But he saw the ocean get worse and worried. When he figured out that this was a bad hurricane, it was too late for many people. The city was destroyed and about 6000 people were dead, including his wife and kid. Issac carried it on his shoulders that it was his fault, that he was careless once, and a horrible hurricane hit. This book's message is that man's faliure to predict when, where, and how a storm will hit can lead to a horrible ending. Isaac's Storm has 6 chapters, each one leading up to the storm. Each one, telling a little bit more about this misunderstanding, and Isaac's training. This book is perfect for teenagers and up. It is a great weather adventure story. I love this book, I think that it has a great balance between the actual storm and it's effects on so many people and the people that try to prevent storms like the category 5 hurricane that hit Galveston.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Beautifully written

I had always heard of this terrible hurricane and I wanted to read about the actual event. I did not expect this book to be so captivating and entertaining. The impending doom is an underlying current throughout the book. The author inserts many personal perspectives including the weather forecaster's family along with many other Galveston residents. The reader gets a visual and factual perspective of life at the turn of the century and the crude tools used to predict the weather. This lack of technology and lack of communication led to the deaths of over 10,000.
I recommend this book without any hesitation. The research is well done, the vision of life in 1900 and the unspeakable power of God's power is wonderfully presented by Mr. Larson.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

MY WIFE'S GRANDFATHER SURVIVED !!!

I couldn't help but read this once I saw it. My wifes grandfather survived the storm as in infant. He was was born in August of 1900 and the storm came the next month. His mother told him their two story home floated down the street with them in it. My mother in law gave me a pendulum clock that I am looking at. She said it floated in Angelo's restaurant. I can still see water stains on its face as I write this. I don't think I understood what people in my family knew about this event until I read Isaac's Storm. I go to Galveston and wonder why some many homes are being built on the beach.Don't they know what happened? It will happen sadly again. I survived Carla in the center of the storm in 1961 in Port Lavaca. I know what can happen. After Galveston and after New Orleans you would think others would know. They don't. Darrell Cameron Houston Resident

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Compelling

Compelling and full of period details

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

LOVED THIS BOOK

Mr. Larson never fails! This book is as good as any of his other book!

Fascinating!

I have an interest in tragedy-disaster-true adventure stories. I've read a number of mountaineering books and disaster-at-sea stories where the weather is always a factor. In all those incidents, there was an understanding of the possibilities when dealing with Mother Nature. Isaac's Storm was different. There was not enough history or technology to know just what was possible.
Larson does a wonderful job of weaving together the events in Galveston in 1900 with the history of the US Weather Service and meteorology in general. I came away with a greater appreciation of the power of nature and the struggles of people who confront that power.

Accessible history and science writing

This book is about the hurricane that decimated Galveston, Texas in 1900. There's quite a bit of science in it, but it's pretty accessible. There's also quite a bit of history about Galveston of course, but also the Weather Bureau in its infancy and weather forecasting, also in its infancy at that time. The later chapters detailing the storm surge and the aftermath are particularly good (and harrowing). Very blunt, sort of just-the-facts writing, which suits that material perfectly. Some of the foreshadowing in the very early chapters felt heavy-handed to me so I was happy the author abandoned it as the story moved along. I also found it an interesting book to read in a post-Katrina world. It was published in 1999. Certainly there had been other awful hurricanes prior to 1999, but I found myself thinking how lucky we are to live in a world where weather forecasting is so much more reliable than it was in 1900, but then just as quickly thought even so, these are very scary and unpredictable forces at work that can do significant damage regardless of the warning we may have.

Don't underestimate mother nature!

"Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History" is really a precautionary tale of hubris. Before Katrina, Andrew, and Frederic, was the worst and deadliest hurricane this nation has ever seen: the 1900 Galveston Hurricane. At least 6,000 people drowned or were lost (later estimates indicated the death tally actually was more toward 10,000). Among the casualties were members of Isaac Cline’s own immediate family. We can feel his horror and guilt as he is forced to step over his fellow Galvestonians, because he also believed no massive storm could ever devastate his beloved city, dubbed the New York of the Gulf. Erik Larsen’s use of Cline’s own letters, reports, telegrams, and hundreds of eye-witness testimonies show Cline’s own hubris and debunks facts that Cline was the quick thinking hero he believed himself to be after the Storm hit. The rivalry with his brother, Joseph, is quite telling.

But to ignore the signs of the storm’s size and intensity by the fledgling National Weather Service was the ultimate sin of human arrogance, Cline’s especially. The NWS didn’t want to create fear, and the concerns of the Cuban meteorologists remained “a growing uneasiness” about the ominous signs in the Caribbean sky. They should have fretted since other parts of the United States experienced major oddities: Waco TX had been under siege by a grand locust plague and the Bering Glazier shrunk. There were no cries of “climate change,” only the mistakes of the government’s new Weather Bureau. Dismissive of the Cuban meteorologists, the NSW cut off all contact with them; because Washington, D.C. refused to believe that a major hurricane could cross the Gulf and hit the Island city of Galveston. Remember, these were the days that only Washington could declare a hurricane, not the local weatherman. The time in 1900 America was Golden. Progress and the discreet political climate downplaying the Clines’ sibling rivalry while emphasizing Galveston’s civic boosterism

My heart lurched as Larson weaves personal stories into the account of this strong storm, especially when the good sisters tied the little ones from St. Mary’s Orphanage together with clothesline. I wanted to scream at the gathering crowd on the shoreline to get out as they watched thee ever changing sky and the rapid rise of water as the Gulf begins its drowning invasion. The scenes on the Pensacola took my breath away. I know the destruction of hurricanes; I have lived through many. Frederic, September 11, 1979 being the worst; I literally shut down when a tree cut my “Aunt” Mary Jane’s house in two and landing less than 3 feet from where I was lying. Perhaps, this is why Larsen’s detailed account of the hurricane’s formation bored me to tears. I know how and where they formed, since my first exposure to hurricanes was in my freshman year in Mobile, AL Spring Hill College. But his pace did keep me interested, yet his writing was completely dry at times. A 3.33 Star read.

Engrossing and Educational

A compelling, educational and ultimately tragic story of hubris and ignorance that pulls you right in. I found myself losing track of time while reading it, which to me is a sure sign a a good book.

Wow!

This is story of a tragic event in American history. The book brought history to life and keeps you in engaged to the very end. This book made me appreciate weather stations even more.

Great mind blowing story.

I have read Thunderstruck and The Devil in the White City by this author and this book does not disappoint. The author made me feel like I was in the storm. He puts me in Galveston. A great story of personalities occurring at the turn of the century when many thought they were invincible to the forces of nature. I could not put the book (the nook) down once the storm begins. Great book.

Started slow but what a finish!

The first 100 pages are a bit slow unless you have a rather intense interest in meteorology. However, once the hurricane hits you won't be able to put it down. A solid 3.5 stars (but no half stars allowed in rating so...).

I couldn't put this book down!

This is a really good read. Eric Larson has a way of turning what could be a dry text of historical events into a exciting page turner.

Good Book!

¿The hurricane which visited Galveston Island on Saturday, September 8, 1900, was no doubt one of the most important meteorological events in the world¿s history.¿ Isaac¿s storm is a wonderful and passionate book about the deadly storm that struck Galveston, Texas. Isaac Cline was the city¿s weather man he lived with his wife and children, and his brother Joseph, who was also very interested in weather. Isaac grew up in Tennessee, where he developed an interest in weather. When he grew older he took a job in Arkansas where he also attended medical school at the University of Arkansas. When he moved to Galveston he was not only the weather man but he also studied how weather affected people. As the story develops you learn more about different storms and fanatical happenings that he has seen. The story is continually building up to the hurricane of 1900, in every other chapter you learn about what is going on in other locations that have been effected by the hurricane that was soon going to hit Galveston. You also learn more about Isaac and other people living in Galveston. The summer of 1900 in Texas was very hot with temperatures reaching above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Isaac received a telegraph from Washington saying that a hurricane had struck in Cuba but would not hit Galveston. Isaac, knowing that the weather bureau had been wrong before, believed it was true and continued on. One night he could hear the waves coming in closer, he checked the barometer and noticed that the pressure was dropping along with the temperatures but the wind was picking up. He knew that something was going to happen, but he wasn¿t sure what. This story is probably one of the best books that I have read in long time. I enjoyed reading about how scientists are able to find out all this information from simple tools that can tell the speed of the wind, how high or low the pressure is, and how warm or cold it is outside. You learn a lot from this book, but you also get pulled into this heartbreaking story about how one storm can change the lives of so many people in numerous ways. I recommend this book to anyone older then 13, especially people who like weather and adventurous stories.

Isaac Cline's Isaac's Storm book

'An absurd delusion,' is how Isaac Cline, a dedicated and highly trained first-generation employee of the new U.S. Weather Bureau, characterized the fear that any hurricane posed a serious danger to the burgeoning city of Galveston, Texas. Isaac Cline was an employee that loved weather and how it worked. Since his times were in the early 1900s, there wasnt an high-tech machines to detect when any kind of weather was coming towards the area. In this book, he describes how he faced the storm and how it felt to be there and witness everything. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about weather/nature and how it works. Isaac Cline did an amazing job on describing the storm bit by bit and going slow so the reader could understand everything that he ment. He also described everything scientificly so the reader would also learn something while reading his novel. The only disadvantage of the book is that it is very long and took me a long time to read. Isaac's Storm is a fascinating look at the physics and meteorology of hurricanes. His book was a suspenseful re-creation of the track of the 1900 Galveston storm, and an electrifying account of the day the storm released its unfathomable fury on Galveston. Most of all, it is an appreciation of the human face of the tragedy, as focused in the story of Isaac Cline, whose pride was the pride of his nation and his time, and whose education in the unpredictable power of nature is one that if we forget today we do so at our peril.

Faithful to the Facts

Isaac's Storm was the product of meticulous research and artfully written. The events leading to the storm help us understand the context of the tragedy and skillfully foreshadowed its magnitude. While the author built a compelling story, he let the story tell itself, without moralizing or preaching to the reader about man's hubris in the face of God's power. That we continue to build our homes and cities on flood plains, faultlines and tinderbox hillsides speaks to our mass denial and reinforces the message about those who refuse to learn from the lessons of history.

Mother Nature's Wrath

Before I even heard of this book, I saw an A&E presentation based on this book. I watched with intense interest through the early morning hours and decided then to purchase the book. I was not disappointed. I found Larson's narrative most compelling and his extrapolations well thought out. I particularly enjoyed reading his resource information in the back of the book. One instance that he wrote about involving onlookers from a boat, he had determined from a magnifying glass observation of the pictures in the Galveston Museum. That attention to detail resonates throughout the book.

Very, very interesting, immerses the reader

Isaac's Storm was a very interesting, very detailed account of the hurricane that killed thousands and mangled the booming city of Galveston, Texas. The story began by telling the tale of the events that lead up to Isaac Cline¿s promotion as the head of the Weather Bureau in Galveston, Texas. It then continues on to introduce many different characters in the city in which Isaac or his family interacted with. About halfway through, the book begins to suck you in and you don¿t want to stop reading as you learn about different firsthand accounts of the tragedies of the unprecedented hurricane that everyone thought was just another ordinary storm. After the storm, the city is left in ruins and the citizens are hopelessly searching for loved ones that disappeared the night before. There are many different major messages and themes in this book. Larson would make a point of the political corruption occurring in the Weather Bureau (since it was in its beginning stages), and the people who were correct about the storm that would soon strike Galveston, but were ignored. The story also sends across a message that people should think twice before finalizing a decision, and also hold dear other family members as they can be lost in a matter of minutes. I really enjoyed this book as it was very interesting and very detailed. Larson did an excellent job of introducing the characters and the stories accompanying them. I also enjoyed the step by step happenings as the storm approached, while it was bearing down on the city and its residents, and the aftermath. There is nothing that I would say that I dislike, but at times the vast amount of characters can become somewhat mind boggling to keep track of. If you enjoy books with very detailed accounts about history and weather, Isaac¿s Storm is the book to read.