Book Review: Isaac's Storm by Erik Larsen

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

Erik Larson gives a riveting account of meteorologist Isaac Cline's life through the lens of the 1900 storm that nearly wiped Galveston, Texas, off the map. Meteorology is the big focus, especially on hurricane detection and survival. Larson gets into the history of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean going all the way back to Christopher Columbus. He gives a brief history of the barometer, a key tool for weather data collection and analysis. Larson comes back to Cline as he describes the nascent National Weather Service, from its training to its maneuverings in Washington's governmental bureaucracy. Cline was a star student and a bit full of himself, a reflection of the larger culture.

The late 1800s saw a flourishing of scientific endeavors and optimism. Many weather scientists were looking for "The Law of Storms," a way to predict hurricanes and other foul weather so as to prepare for their impact and avoid catastrophic losses. Knowledge gives power, or so the thinking went, which implied control or mastery, which isn't necessarily so. The hubris of the age led to the tragedy of Galveston, with six to ten thousand deaths and massive amounts of destruction on Galveston Island and mainland Texas. An interesting conflict was in Cuba, where the National Weather Service representatives felt they were in competition with a local observatory that was "less scientific" but more accurate (though often more bombastic) in forecasting storms. The NWS people used their government connections to cut off the locals' access to telegraph services, leaving the United States with only the NWS predictions. When the fateful storm came through Cuba, the NWS predicted that it would turn north and east toward Florida--that's the official story that went out. The locals predicted that it would go north and west toward Texas--but they could not tell the mainland. Galveston couldn't avoid the storm but they certainly could have been warned earlier.

Larson gives a lot of detail of Galveston, how the people were used to storms coming in and it was a booming town in competition with Houston for greatness. The people had a lot of pride and some ambition, so even if they got the warning maybe they would not have left in time. A lot of people (including Isaac Cline) thought their houses were safe enough to weather any storm. Cline's house was shorn off the island, leaving him and his family adrift as the hurricane raged on Saturday night, September 8, 1900. The details of the destruction and loss of life are heart-rending and vividly described. The horrible aftermath has less detail but wraps up the story. Cline was moved by NWS to New Orleans, which he saw negatively. A lot of the difficult people in the Weather Service were sent there, making it hard to manage and a virtual dead end for his career.

I found the writing uneven. Larson writes beautiful text and it is very evocative. But the theme of scientific hubris, the main focus of the first third of the book, mostly drops out in the last two-thirds as the storm hits. Plenty of action and drama takes over the narrative. Larson took a little more license than I was comfortable with as he describes the inner feelings and mindsets of the people. Big chunks read more like dramatic recreations than objective narratives of what actually happened. The historic records aren't as detailed as they are nowadays, especially with Isaac losing all his letters and writings with his house.

Mildly recommended.

Book Review: Through a Night of Horrors ed. by C. E. Greene and S. H. Kelly

Through a Night of Horrors: Voices from the 1900 Galveston Storm edited by Casey Edward Greene and Shelly Henley Kelly

This compilation of eyewitness accounts shows the residents' reactions to the storm that struck Galveston Island in 1900. It's divided into letters, memoirs, and oral histories that have been transcribed. Interspersed with the letters are reports from National Weather Service meteorologist Isaac Cline who was stationed at Galveston through the storm. The texts give a very vivid portrait of what people went through. A common theme is the belief that they wouldn't make it through the night. Another striking reaction is in the aftermath when people were just numb to the horror of the situation--the thousands of dead, the wretched smell of mud and slime, the complete devastation in some areas. Survivors describe walls of debris, some two stories tall, caused by the storm surge that came in from both the north and south sides of the island. Most people had no sense of how bad it would get since they had lived through plenty of other "big blows." The book includes dozens of pictures of the devastation and maps to show where the various survivors waited out the storm. The end notes explain various details or discrepancies that arise from people misremembering what happened.

Recommended--this book is more for people interested in the history of the storm than for general readers.

Book Review: A Weekend in September by John Edward Weems

A Weekend in September by John Edward Weems

On September 8, 1900, a hurricane hit Galveston Island. At the time, there was little advanced warning and the islanders were used to big storms coming through. Most houses were built above ground so the "overflows" from the Gulf of Mexico or from Galveston Bay would do minimal damage. The 1900 storm was considerably worse than any previous storm. It caused the greatest natural disaster in American history with approximately 6000 dead. The devastation was so great, a precise number is impossible. Large sections of the city were flattened or washed away.

Weems chronicles the weekend (the storm hit on a Saturday) with eyewitness accounts of various survivors and the more reliable of reports from local newspapers. Galveston was a large city at the time, the second largest in Texas. The summer season was just ending and the docks along the north side of the island had many merchant ships coming and going. The National Weather Service had indications of a large storm near Cuba days earlier but they predicted landfall in Louisiana. The rough surf on Saturday morning grew into an overflow that would cover the entire island by nightfall. The winds from the north blew water from Galveston Bay onto the north of the island as the storm surge started to cover the south of the island. The winds grew more ferocious during the day, strong enough to blow the anemometer off the roof of the local weather service. People fled to the most stable houses they could find and slowly moved upstairs as the day grew progressively worse. Many people were trapped. Some were blown out of their shelters, riding out the storm on detritus or in the branches of trees that still poked out above the water. Some were blown far inland; many were lost at sea. Hundreds of houses and businesses were completely destroyed. The shock of survivors on Sunday led into a long and desperate recovery that took months.

The story is harrowing and sobering. The ground-eye view from the survivors gives the narrative authenticity. Many survivors said that you can't imagine what it was truly like. They lived through a horrible afternoon and night where they did not expect to survive. This is a book that's hard to put down.

Highly recommended.