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A review by mburnamfink
Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson
5.0
Isaac's Storm is a masterpiece of narrative non-fiction, tracing the systematic arrogance of the US weather service at the end of the 19th century and the devastating Galveston Hurricane of 1900 through the figure of Isaac Cline, the US Weather Service bureau chief in the city.
First, the systematic arrogance. America at the end of the 19th century was a country coming into its own power, having conquered a continent, beaten the Spanish, and (mostly) buried the strife of the Civil War. Americans were rational, muscular, confident, and ready to conquer the world. The nascent weather service was a mirror of society, taking in observations from sober and skilled young men across the country and spitting out reliable reports. Well, definitely reports, reliability was another problem.
The basic issue was that given the technology of the period, good forecasts were more a matter of luck than skill. Particularly for hurricanes, there was no way to observe them at sea, and damaging storms tended to down telegraph lines to transmit warnings back to headquarters. In typical period racism, American officials discounted the skills of Cuban meteorologists as emotional superstition, and banned them from using the telegraph system. In order to prevent politically damaging false alarms, the phrase 'hurricane' could only be used on expressed orders from Washington DC.
The city of Galveston was a second order of arrogance, built on a sandy island barely above sea level between the Gulf of Mexico and an interior bay. Objectively, Galveston was fantastically vulnerable to flooding. City officials argued that hurricanes would never strike Galveston, and if they did, various hydrographic features would protect the city. This was a matter of pride and of wealth, as Galveston and Houston were engaged in a race to be Texas' primary city.
Hurricanes that enter the Gulf of Mexico are rare compared to Atlantic hurricanes, but can be especially devastating because the Gulf is an expanse of humid heat that hits the cyclone engine of the hurricane like a nitrous oxide boost. The Great Storm slammed into Galveston on the evening of September 8th like a divinely ordained missile.
At first the inhabitants delighted at the unexpected coolness in the midst of a summer heatwave, and the entertainment of immense waves. Then the buildings on the shore started to collapse, water rose in the streets, and slate roof tiles whipped through the air like bullets. At the storm intensified, people sought shelter wherever they could. And then all too often, the buildings they sheltered in gave up against the forces that assaulted the city, and the people were cast out into the night to die. Families were torn apart by wind and water, some groups expiring entirely and others leaving a traumatized survivor to make sense of the devastation. Isaac lost his wife and several children, though some of his family survived.
Isaac's Storm is compelling and masterfully written, and though it came out years before Katrina, Harvey, and Sandy wrecked their havoc, it remains a prescient warning in an age of larger storms and rising seas. Compared to Isaac's generation, we have better tools to see the storm coming, but prediction is still not safety.
First, the systematic arrogance. America at the end of the 19th century was a country coming into its own power, having conquered a continent, beaten the Spanish, and (mostly) buried the strife of the Civil War. Americans were rational, muscular, confident, and ready to conquer the world. The nascent weather service was a mirror of society, taking in observations from sober and skilled young men across the country and spitting out reliable reports. Well, definitely reports, reliability was another problem.
The basic issue was that given the technology of the period, good forecasts were more a matter of luck than skill. Particularly for hurricanes, there was no way to observe them at sea, and damaging storms tended to down telegraph lines to transmit warnings back to headquarters. In typical period racism, American officials discounted the skills of Cuban meteorologists as emotional superstition, and banned them from using the telegraph system. In order to prevent politically damaging false alarms, the phrase 'hurricane' could only be used on expressed orders from Washington DC.
The city of Galveston was a second order of arrogance, built on a sandy island barely above sea level between the Gulf of Mexico and an interior bay. Objectively, Galveston was fantastically vulnerable to flooding. City officials argued that hurricanes would never strike Galveston, and if they did, various hydrographic features would protect the city. This was a matter of pride and of wealth, as Galveston and Houston were engaged in a race to be Texas' primary city.
Hurricanes that enter the Gulf of Mexico are rare compared to Atlantic hurricanes, but can be especially devastating because the Gulf is an expanse of humid heat that hits the cyclone engine of the hurricane like a nitrous oxide boost. The Great Storm slammed into Galveston on the evening of September 8th like a divinely ordained missile.
At first the inhabitants delighted at the unexpected coolness in the midst of a summer heatwave, and the entertainment of immense waves. Then the buildings on the shore started to collapse, water rose in the streets, and slate roof tiles whipped through the air like bullets. At the storm intensified, people sought shelter wherever they could. And then all too often, the buildings they sheltered in gave up against the forces that assaulted the city, and the people were cast out into the night to die. Families were torn apart by wind and water, some groups expiring entirely and others leaving a traumatized survivor to make sense of the devastation. Isaac lost his wife and several children, though some of his family survived.
Isaac's Storm is compelling and masterfully written, and though it came out years before Katrina, Harvey, and Sandy wrecked their havoc, it remains a prescient warning in an age of larger storms and rising seas. Compared to Isaac's generation, we have better tools to see the storm coming, but prediction is still not safety.