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

Rating:
Summary: An exciting read with well-researched detail
Review: This is a fast paced, well written, well researched book. It covers the science of hurricanes, some of the history of the U.S. weather service, and the life of a hard working weather observer named Isaac Cline.

The book does a great job describing the over-confidence of the American weather service. They were fantastically wrong about the storm. Before you can say, "Well, who knew anything about the weather in those days?" it explains that the Cuban weather service was trying to warn us about the storm, but were silenced by the American station in Cuba.

The best thing about the book is an almost steampunk feel that it gives with everyone geeking out over the telegraph, steel steamships, weather maps and man made harbors. The characters are up against a hurricane of fantastic proportions and they trust their modern technology to predict and subdue nature.

The only downside is that much of the book repeatedly sounds one note: These people have no idea what is coming. I never lost the lurid fascination of watching people who have no idea about the juggernaut bearing down upon them, but some of that space could have been devoted to exploring other details. In case you didn't get it, these people have no idea what force of nature is about to wipe out everything they know.

Larson gives great visual descriptions. I could literally see the roofs suddenly being removed from houses, people clinging to doors and trees, corpses floating past.

Another strength of the book is Larson's extensive research into first hand accounts of the storm and facts about other storms.

The book did not cast Cline as a hero, but instead portrayed him as a complex character who perhaps inflated his own role in protecting people from the storm. Did he bend the truth and ignore his instincts because of the oppressive bureaucracy he was in? It is still up in the air for me after reading the book. Perhaps that was the intent. The book contained some great villains of bureaucracy that were not so much evil as relentlessly pig-headed.

There is a lot here for weather geeks:

"The storm had undergone an intensification known to late-twentieth-century hurricanologists as explosive deepening, but the Weather Bureau of Isaac's time had no idea such a dramatic change could occur."

The book is a quick read. I would recommend it to anyone with a general interest in history or the weather.


Rating:
Summary: A compelling read
Review: I've had this book in my TBR stack for several years now, and have even started to read it a couple of times. Whey it "took" better this time than the others I don't know, but I do know that I couldn't put it town. In a detailed account, Larson tells the story of the devastating Galveston hurricane of 1900 complete with details of the history of the forecasting of storms (did you know that for a time forecasters were forbidden to use the word "tornado" when forecasting a severe storm for fear of panicking people?), the ineptness of the system, the arrogance of forecasters, and the politics that came into play. Interwoven with the history of hurricanes, and this hurricane in particular, Larson recounts the tragic stories of victims and survivors. In light of the recent devastating tsunami in south Asia, the book becomes of even more interest. There have been a lot of stories about natural disasters, but few have made bestseller status as this one has, and it justly deserved its place on the bestseller lists. If you haven't read this book yet, what are you waiting for? Erik Larson really knows how to hold the reader in his grip. Very much worth reading.


Rating:
Summary: Titantic 2
Review: To this day I get angry when I think of what this writer did with a tragedy that needed no bluff and puff. Maybe his editors urged him to "take a point of view." Maybe not. The point is, Erik Larson is like a parasite that attaches itself to something bigger and feeds off it for as long as it can.

All Larson did was take Moby Dick and the Titanic, mix it up a bit with "The Perfect Storm" and he cooked up this putrid excuse for a book just in time for its 100th anniversary. Oh wow.

Larson pitted poor Isaac against a storm he had no way in hell of knowing was coming. In doing so, he attempted to make Isaac "the silly mortal" and the storm "the will of God or nature" or whatever it is man has no control over. Larson attempted to write an epic at the expence of Isaac. He tried to turn it into the "Titanic".... The Industrial era against nature....And it makes me want to vomit that he managed to sell the idea and the book to so many people.

I hate this book because the writer wrote it just to make some money or to make his name anyway he could. He was not true to the history and he hurt himself by being too eager to fall into the slime.

This book is nothing but a titanic want-a-be in the midst of an imperfect storm.



Rating:
Summary: A stunning book....
Review: This extraordinary book tells the story of the massive hurricane that struck Galveston, Texas in 1900 and killed approx. 8000 people. The author tells the story principally through the eyes of Isaac Cline, who was the offical US Weather Bureau observer in Galveston. Unfortunately for the people of Galveston, the dangers of the approaching storm were not properly revealed, and a cataclysm resulted. It is absolutely astounding to think that this many people perished in a hurricane, and the author does a spectacular job of telling the story. You will actually believe you are there, as his storytelling and scene-setting is superb. Highly recommended!


Rating:
Summary: A Good Read!!!!
Review: Larson's recounting of this disaster is gripping, well written and very readable. He sets the mood of the times extremely well, his details and side stories are fascinating and bring the story to life.
If you liked "The Perfect Storm" or similar books, then you must read this one, you won't be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: History comes alive through Larson's skilled writing
Review: Erik Larson has a unique gift for bringing history alive; he not only gives a superb sense of time and place, but he brings out the relevancy of those times and places to our lives today. In Larson's true life characters, we see ourselves and our society. The same foibles and fears--the same pride, hubris, and short-sightedness--that affected the citizens of Galveston in 1900, still stalk us today, more than 100 years later. This story builds in intensity, much like the titular hurricane, and when the storm finally blows ashore, the reader is caught up in its inexorable grip. As Larson later demonstrated in his superb book, THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY, he is a masterful story-teller and detective, who can find the smallest thread and weave it into a colorful tapestry of the universal human condition.

Rating:
Summary: Marvelous!
Review: It is rare indeed to find an author with the talent that Erik Larson has shown in writing this book. In writing historical accounts, many authors do a fine job of research and tell their story in a very readable manner, but seldom does an author do as well in both areas as does Larson. In reading this account of the great hurricane that struck Galveston, Texas in September of 1900 I was often reminded of David McCullough's riveting account of the Johnstown flood that preceded this disaster by eleven years. An author can't keep much higher company than that.

This is not only the story of a hurricane though, it is also the story of Isaac Cline and to some extent the story of Issac's employer the national weather bureau. As is often the case with men of science, Cline allowed himself to believe that science had an answer for everything and Mother Nature taught him a lesson in reality, the hard way. Larson explores Cline's mistakes and leaves the reader with no doubt that the head of the Galveston weather bureau bears some responsibility for the thousands of deaths caused by the hurricane. There is much more blame however to be shared by a group of smug bureaucrats that tried to discredit Cuban forecasters who had accurately predicted the hurricane's path. Cline accepted his responsibility while the others simply refused to admit error.

Larson takes the reader through Cline's career as well as the events leading up to the storm. The tension builds as the reader, who knows what is coming is then introduced to several citizens of Galveston. The author then leads the reader through the storm in riveting accounts told by survivors, especially those to whom he has introduced the reader earlier. One can sense in Larson's words the joy of children playing in the rising water and the fascination of the adults as the waves destroy a series of bathhouses. Then the reader feels the emotions begin to change as fear starts to creep into people's minds. The terror that these people begin to feel is so well communicated that the reader is caught up in the storm with it's victims and I found myself unable to put the book down until I found out what happened to these people.

After the storm passes, Larson works his literary magic yet again in describing the carnage and the sadness left behind. The reader will almost mourn with the survivors as they try to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives. Each and every story becomes a testimonial to the spirit of those who survived the storm and will inspire as well as sadden. I really regret that I waited so long to read this book for it is one of the best works I have read in a long time.

Rating:
Summary: Before Hurricanes Had Names
Review: Isaac Cline was in charge of the weather station in Galveston, Texas when a catastrophic hurricane struck that island city on September 8, 1900. Somewhat of a rising star in the nascent U.S. Weather Service, Cline represents the optimistic faith in science and technological progress that characterized America at the dawn of the 20th century (and the dawn of the 21st century). At times this faith is indistinguishible from hubris. And it can have disastrous consequences when human beings believe that knowledge attained is knowledge complete. I

In its essence, that's the story of Isaac's Storm. But at 273 pages, it's surprisingly much more than that. Isaac's Storm is also the story of a city poised to be, but never to become, the most important commercial city in Texas and one of the key ports in the United States. It's the story of individual Galvestonians whose lives were changed or lost on that horrible day. And it's the story of a monstrous storm that was born inconspicuously in western Africa and died anonymously somewhere in Siberia.

Isaac's Storm was written the way history should be written. Author Erik Larson uses firsthand and contemporary accounts, memoirs, meteorlogical information and a gifted imagination to weave these several stories into a compelling little masterpiece. In its brevity, immediacy and intimacy, it reminded me of A Night to Remember, Walter Lord's seminal story of the Titanic disaster. Like Lord, Larson regenerates a time, a place and individuals that no longer exist.

As Larson describes him, Isaac Cline is not a villain. On the contrary, he seems to be a decent, intelligent and well-meaning man, committed to understanding and reporting on the weather. Unfortunately, he and his colleagues hold to prevailing theories regarding hurricanes -- particularly, that no hurricane could travel further west than Cuba, and certainly not as far west as Texas. Warnings from Cuban meteorologists that a hurricane had, in fact, just passed over Cuba and was heading for the Texas coast were ridiculed by U.S. Weather Service officials in Havana. Thus the warning never reached Galveston. So, even when Cline's own observations on September 7 and 8 indicated an approaching hurricane, he refused to believe it until the storm crashed into Galveston.

Larson's rendering of the days leading up to the storm and his vivid depiction of the cataclysm are superb. My only problem with the book (and the reason I didn't give it five stars) was his focus on what Cline did after the storm. Since 1900, it has been accepted that Cline, finally realizing that disaster was imminent, rode up and down Galveston's beach, warning those there to head for safety. Certainly, Cline later claimed that he thus saved 6000 people (and possibly double that number). Larson attacks this as a myth and argues that no real proof of Cline's effort at warning exist. He argues that Cline may have been trying to minimize his failure to heed indications that a hurricane was fast approaching unsuspecting Galveston. Frankly, I don't have a stake in the outcome of that debate 104 years after the fact. However, I believe the implication slightly marred an otherwise flawless book. Fortunately, while they were a bit distracting and seemed a little gratuitous, Larson's assertions don't take away from the marvelous panorama he sets before the reader.

One final note -- if you're interested in weather and history, you will thoroughly enjoy this book. However, if you find meteorology boring, not to fear. Just as he presents in striking color an era we usually see as monochrome, and just as he brings to life the stories of individual heroism and tragedy, Larson deftly weaves the biography of the hurricane itself into the story of Isaac Cline's storm.

Rating:
Summary: Good Read
Review: This book perfectly captures how turn of the 20th century Americans thought we had mastered the capability to predict the weather and that we were even above destruction.

Isaac's Storm is a study of what happens when it turns out that we are reminded that we have mastered nothing, and are humbled by nature's fury.

Inquistiveness about people and the love of all things weather are necessary to fully understand and appreciate this fine book.