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Summary: Hurricane Season is Coming.........
Review: Having lived in North Carolina and having gone through hurricanes Fran and Floyd, along with several smaller hurricanes, I found this book fascinating. It tells the story of the development of a super killer hurricane through the eyes of a man who does the best he can with the scientific knowledge available. To see the change in weather forecasting from then until now is amazing. To understand the unpredictability of storms even in this day and age is frightening. The devastation wrought by this storm is so completely thorough,and the author does a superior job of rendering a picture that the reader can grasp. The actual historical perspective, blended with the memories of Isaac should cause everyone to understand that nature has uncontrollable power and deserves our respect. Anyone who lives in an area where there is possible hurricane activity should read this book and then learn to prepare and plan for an eventual hurricane. The devastation of Floyd went way beyond the immediate coastline where most people think the main damage occurs. Since then the National Hurricane Center has realized that new ratings for damage potential and water amounts need to be developed. As "weather smart" as the people of Isaac's time thought they were, are we not as smuggly self assured as they were. Storms can do unexpected things no matter how closely they are monitored. This was an excellent book about how mother nature doesn't have a trip itinerary, but moves as her spirit strikes.
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Summary: A thoughtful fresh perspective
Review: Isaac's Storm was the best book I read last year. I visited Galveston after reading it. Where are the historical markers? Why isn't Isaac's Storm sold at the museum? Hmmm... Almost no mention of the storm anywhere in town. My wife, who is a historian, and I agree that this is a classic case of historical cover-up: 1) Portray Cline as a hero. 2) Deny that Galveston was affected by "the hubris of the age." 3) Hide the evidence so tourism isn't impacted. 4) Present the bravery and the resilience of the people in a time of tragedy. Only point 4) seems honest. For that, Galveston should be commended. For the rest, it's time we had some fresh perspective. Larson provides it.
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Summary: Sorry guys, a poor excuse for a book on the storm.
Review: Being from Galveston, and having read every book around on the 1900 storm, let me advise you to get ANY one of the others. You will find any one of them a much better read.
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Summary: Hard to Believe It's Non-Fiction!
Review: Isaac's Storm is as readable and fascinating as any novel! As a historian of natural disasters, this short book showed me a typical set of urban reactions in times of crisis--lack of knowledge or denial that a major disaster was about to overtake the city, a rush to the beach to "watch the water rise," shock at the loss of life and property destruction, numbness to the burial and burning of bodies by the thousands, years of grief for lost loved ones, and, eventually, an overwhelming desire to find out "why?" and assign blame. The book also provides graphic documentation of internal conflicts within a Federal government agency concerning disaster preparedness, warning, and relief that may, with better foresight and training, have reduced the enormous loss of life and destruction of property. One national outcome of the Galvestion hurricane was the council-manager form of municipal government. Similar books exposing bureaucratic ineptitude have recently been published on the 1947 Texas City ship explosions, the 1935 Florida Keys hurricane, and the 1927 Mississippi River flood. These three disasters also led to bureaucratic reforms, although none of the four led to Federal admissions of guilt or responsibility. For those readers who are interested in the national impact of such catastrophic events, I would highly recommend Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America (1998). This book provides outstanding documentation of the unquestioning acceptance by generations of Federal engineers and politicians of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' mid-19th century "levees only" policy of flood control. It also enlightens us on the meteoric rise of politically astute Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover, who had never held elective office, to the Presidency of the United States due, in part, to his manipulation of publicity surrounding relief efforts after the disasterous 1927 floods on the lower Mississippi River.
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Summary: Isaac's Storm will frighten you
Review: Isaac's Storm will make your heart pound. It tells of the slow, leisurely progress of a massive hurricane that everyone thought headed toward New England. Instead, the hurricane turned and headed toward Galveston, Texas. Would the Weather Service detect the real path of the storm in time? Would it warn Galveston? Would the city survive? Written from the point of Isaac Monroe Cline, the weatherman on the scene who failed to warn Galveston in time, every chapter will thrill you.
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Summary: A fascinating story, well told by Erik Larson
Review: "Isaac's Storm" is an informative, well-written, well-researched, often gripping book, and is well worth reading on several levels. First and foremost, although this book describes a disaster - and the chain of events leading to it -- which took place over 100 years ago, it still has many themes which ring true today. Among these are: 1) hubris and its tragic repercussions, a theme going back at least to Ancient Greece; 2) man's faith in the ability of science and technology to overcome/control nature; 3) excessive belief that the world is a rational place, and a consistent underestimation of the irrational forces - jealousy, greed, pride, insecurity, racism, obstinacy, etc. and 4) man's almost unlimited ability to resolve "cognitive dissonance" (i.e., changing one's behavior, beliefs, or perceptions in order to reduce or avoid psychological discomfort), often with disastrous results. Second, "Isaac's Storm" is fascinating from a scientific point of view. Erik Larson is excellent at describing the genesis, development, and impact of hurricanes, and also the particular challenges in forecasting them. "Chaos theory" comes into play here, and Larson convincingly shows how a small perturbation in a complex system (the proverbial "butterfly flapping its wings") can lead to "an outcome no rational person would ever have expected." Specifically, although many tropical "waves" move off the coast of West Africa each summer, the vast majority do not develop into hurricanes. But, for some reason, every so often one will grow into a monster storm which, a week or so later, can wreak incredible devastation thousands of miles away - in south Texas, south Florida, or South Carolina! Third, Larson's book is engaging from a historic perspective, giving us a glimpse of life at the beginning of the 20th century in Galveston, Texas and elsewhere in the energetic, dynamic, rapidly growing young nation - the United States. Larson has definitely done a tremendous amount of research for this book, and it shows, in telling the story - and telling it well -- of one of the greatest natural disasters in US history (but one which is largely forgotten today). Finally, "Isaac's Storm" is illuminating from a human perspective. Here we have a diverse and interesting cast of characters (first and foremost, of course, being the "Isaac" of the title) who, in their beliefs, actions, and interactions with each other, create their own "butterfly effect" of a sort. So we observe how politics, economic competitiveness (Galveston vs. Houston), sibling rivalry, cultural misunderstandings and even racism, and the overconfidence/hubris of several key weather officials (i.e, that hurricanes ALWAYS curved out to the Atlantic, and COULD NOT hit Galveston) and others turn what would certainly have been a terrible loss of property into a total disaster, with a horrendous death toll. There are lots of "if only" scenarios here, but ultimately, it comes down to the following: "if only" the residents of Galveston had been ordered to evacuate, or at least told that an incredibly powerful storm threatened them, then thousands of people's lives could have been saved. Fascinating stuff...I wholeheartedly recommend this book! (P.S. This is much better than the wildly overrated "A Perfect Storm")
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Summary: Diasater Strikes Thriving Metropolis- No Warning
Review: This book reminds me of the Kevin Burns documentaries on PBS. The author has very meticulously researched the disaster inflicted by a major hurricane that struck a thriving metropolis at the turn of century (1900). There are a lot of details to get through in the first half of the book. These descriptions concern the completely ineffective forcasting but overconfident weather service which failed to issue any warnings whatsoever to the inhabitants of Galveston Island. The weather service was as completely taken by surprise as the ordinary inhabitant. This left all the general populus totally unprepared. Even as the storm was upon them,they went about ordinary business and trivial tasks, unaware of the amplifying danger or the magnitude of the destruction to come. The 15 foot storm surge which entered and collapsed their homes and the floating bodies of their neighbors brought them to a sobering reality. The second half relates narratives from survivors in documentary fashion. Today a major earthquake striking a large urban area might cause such devastation. In developed countries we do not ever see anything like this because sequential satellite pictures now show us the life cycles of each hurricane as it crosses the Atlantic from Africa and prompt coastal evacuations. Reliving the Galveston hurricane which turned the city into a woodpile and took thousands of lives prematurely is a worthwhile experience. It is a fitting subject for a disaster film -only unfortunatly- morbidly true.
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Summary: Fascinating Story You'll Be Tempted to Read in One Sitting
Review: This is a good book that fascinates and entertains. Larson writes in a breezy style (no pun intended) that keeps the pace moving while not neglecting facts and incidents that flesh the story out. The narrative voice reminds one more of a long magazine piece rather than traditional non-fiction, but this pacing helps make Isaac's Storm a quick read. The Galveston storm was a tremendous tragedy. At least six thousand people died in one of North America's most violent hurricains on record. Yet the timing of the storm (1900) also caught America at a self-confident moment that exposed the cost of hubris. We thought knew weather better than we did, thought we could tame nature, and thought that coastal development was immune to the ravages experienced by such places in other parts of the world. This storm provided a wonderful illustration of what happens when luck and happenstance are taken for understanding and certainty. Interesting tidbits abound in the story. The author does a good job of explaining the formation of cyclones and hurricanes and makes it interesting. The formation of the national weather bureau (and the petty jealousies that attended it in these years) is likewise iintersting and tells the story of why Galveston literally had no warning that it was in harm's way (the author leaves you with the impression that some warning could have been avaialable if not for human stupidity and bureaucratic turf consciousness). By far, however, the strongest voices in the story are those who witnessed a natural calamity that literally scraped the site of a city from the earth. The author provides very good descriptions (from eyewitnesses)of the hurricane itself and it's aftermath. The only fault with the book is that the author does put a lot of words and thoughts in character's heads. He admits this in his notes and I think gives a good defense of his methods -- and also has researched his story well enough that these licenses are strongly plausible. This may bother pure historians, but it helps make a good story. A very good read you may want to tackle in one sitting. It did make me wonder why anyone would want to live in Galveston today -- sea wall or not!
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Summary: Hubris
Review: The story of the tragedy of man's hubris. Isaac saw the signs of an impending storm, but chose to believe that a catastrophic hurricane could never hurt Galveston. The Weather Bureau chose petty infighting and conceit as opposed to true predictions and cooperation with the Cuban Weather Service. Just like the Hindenburg, the Titanic and the Challenger, disasterous events occur when men think they have dominated nature. Larson's account is well written and hypnotic and you'll find yourself flipping the pages faster and faster in the hopes that someone will come to their senses and sound the alarm.
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Summary: Simply Put, One of the Best Disasters Books Out There
Review: Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson is a nail biting, edge of the seat sort of read that had me gripped from beginning to end. It reads like a novel (occasionally making one question the entire truthfulness behind the characters should the plot slow down enough for such speculation, which it does not). There are heroes and there are villains, there are victims and there are survivors, there are lessons learned and lessons forgotten. You will never look at storm warnings or a wind coming off the ocean in the same way again. I initially read this book in New York while the edge of a hurricane tugged at the apartment windows. I do not recommend that but reading this book you will feel in the middle of a hurricane wherever you are. An excellant read that earns the praise that it has received.
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