The book that I chose to read for this class is called “Isaac’s Storm; A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History” by Erik Larson. This book caught my eye because of it being a national bestseller and the title sounded intriguing.
The true story is based on the historic hurricane which hit Galveston, Texas on September 8, 1900. Galveston is one of the most vulnerable places to encounter great amounts of damage, especially sea surge, because of the city just being 1 foot above sea level. Galveston had tens of thousands of residents living there at the time and not a one (even head weather forecasters) had any worry about being hit by a major storm; it seemed impossible, hopes were high with the American West booming and Galveston was in a heated race with Houston to become Texas’ number one port city. Isaac Cline, who was the main character of the book, was the trusted and reliable main weatherman for the city and even he insisted that Galveston is to have no worry as it was deemed safe from hurricane threat. It’s easy to figure out that Isaac was doing his best at predicting the weather even though he was working for an ineffectual US Weather Bureau and obviously since this took place at the start of the 20th century, technology was limited and there was little scientific understanding of weather. I say that the Weather Bureau was ineffective because it was headed by a man named Willis Moore and they were more interested in raising their own personal standing than to work on improving the department. Another thing about Isaac was that his brother was also a weatherman but Isaac and his brother Joseph didn’t really get along and by the end of the book it sounds like they don’t even know who each other is. Although Isaac may be the main source of the book, the book isn’t about him although he’s in the title; however, the book is about the hurricane itself. The book explains the incredible hurricane that forever changed Galveston. The author explains the major mistakes that added to the disaster and the book tells the stories of real life people who had survived the storm which is seen as one of America’s worst natural disasters.
The storm was so devastating because the Galveston population was never warned of a severe hurricane or even the threat of one occurring. The Weather Bureau had predicted that the incoming storm was a mere “disturbance” and was going to curve to the north before hitting Texas because that was what all West Indies hurricanes did. The storm however didn’t go north but instead became intense and moved westward because of the high pressure over the eastern U.S. The bureau wouldn’t even say hurricane because they didn’t want to scare the public and Moore blocked the weather cables from Cuba before the storm although Cuba was much more advanced in weather prediction because of an advanced warning system that they had developed. Because Isaac was a major figure in Galveston and he supported the idea that the city was safe from hurricanes, the people living here saw themselves as being invincible and nothing to worry about. They were okay with the idea of living here because they didn’t know that there was indeed incredible risk to living here since the city was incredibly vulnerable to a major disaster. Any natural disaster of this magnitude would require a perfect hit and additional contributing factors, and that’s exactly what happened. September 8, 1900, began as a normal day and then due to the deep sea wells and odd winds, one of the largest hurricanes struck the city. The town was completely destroyed and some 6000 people were killed even though some reports have the numbers up to 10,000. Some of the main reasons for the devastation of this event was that science and technology hadn’t yet reached a sufficient level needed to prevent a disaster. The main problem was that the level of communication was inadequate and there were no well-developed rescue networks to relay the latest information and to advise people to evacuate, or to save victims if they are trapped. Many people who lived in Galveston were victims of not evacuating. Either people thought that the places they were in were strong enough to support the storm or people were led to think that the storm was not too serious and it would pass without severe damage. Isaac was one who supported for he and his family to stay while his brother Joseph urged that they all leave as the house was not capable of withstanding the storm. This was one of the main reasons that Joseph and Isaac didn’t get along, it was also thought that Joseph may have been jealous of Isaac because of his prestige in the city. The decision Isaac made to stay would haunt him for the rest of his life as he lost his wife and nearly lost his daughters. Isaac took the blame for his wife’s death and also felt guilty for other town’s people who lost family members. People of Galveston were deemed very lucky if they only had possession damage after the storm. After the storm people were shocked when they came into the city as it was a ghost town littered with dead bodies and smelling like it too. Mitigation efforts were then made and the city was rebuilt better than ever, including raising the city’s altitude and building a 17 foot seawall around the city which was “one of the greatest engineering works of modern times” (Larsen 265). The city overcame the tremendous storm with resilience and the survivors remained strong and the “fathers” of the city were dedicated to the rebuilding.
I really liked this book because the author did a great job introducing a number of real people that lived in Galveston at the time of the storm. I felt like I really had a good grasp on each character and then when the storm hit, there was a chapter for each character’s accounts on what was taking place during the storm. Although most of the testimonies were sad due to so many casualties of previously described characters, it really vividly painted an image in my head of how wild this storm was and really put it into perspective. Each person had unique stories with impressive detail which made it suspenseful to read. If relating this storm to hazard paradigms, I would argue that it would fit with the behavioural and developmental paradigm. This is probably due to the time but it fit the behavioural because people decided to live here (but they didn’t understand the risk) and it fit the developmental because even though the economy was roaring at the time, the infrastructure built at this time just couldn’t withstand the severity of a storm like this. Overall I thought the author was very good and the book was very good because it’s referenced to actual people who were apart of one of the biggest natural disasters in American history and the book kept me intrigued to read more, I would highly suggest for people to read this book if they like reading non-fiction storm books.
