Erik Larson and the book ‘Isaac’s Storm’

It was September, 1900 when the prevailing assumptions about meteorological knowledge for the paths of storms were simultaneously less understood than today while also thought to be well understood and predictable. Many factors went into the Galveston hurricane of 1900 being one of, if not the deadliest storms in United States history. Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson, Larson’s first book of narrative nonfiction, looks into that time and the current understanding of those factors.

(Erik Larson wrote Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History. Larson tells the story of Galveston, Texas and the hurricane that occurred there in September of 1900).

The experience of the place and time leading to the establishment of credibility for the National Weather Service (NWS) (then called the U.S. Weather Bureau) leading up to the beginning of the 20th century. The existence of a reliable means of predicting weather, let alone understanding the forces underpinning the conditions and potential paths of hurricanes, were poorly understood. Unreliable methods were homegrown before the government weather bureau. Adolphus Greely led the U.S. Army‘s Signal Corps, growing the weather reporting capability. Meteorologist Issac Cline grew scientific experience and came to understand leadership through Greely until the birth of the U.S. Weather Bureau and the forthcoming leadership of Chief Willis Moore.

(From left, meteorologist Isaac Cline and U.S. Weather Bureau Chief Willis Moore).

Moore and Cline saw the conduct of the Weather Bureau differently, which is described fairly well in Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History. Evidence of political shenanigans were there, with the resolution an afterthought to the growing economy of Galveston, clear tales of distrust from the U.S. Weather Bureau around forecasting from skilled Cuban meteorologists, and the sales pitch for economic and commercial influence for Galveston over Houston all contributing to the inability of Cline, Moore and the U.S. Weather Bureau to take hurricane predicting before the hurricane in Galveston seriously enough.

(A house tipped on its side, with several boys standing in front, after the 1900 hurricane that struck Galveston in Texas. The original image is the property of the Library of Congress).

Isaac Cline was the chief meteorologist of Galveston, Texas for more than a year before the hurricane struck there in September 1900. Cline‘s meteorologist brother Joseph Cline counseled his brother to order an evacuation before the hurricane hit, yet the chief meteorologist was slow to act. The two would become estranged, never reconciling despite the pair dying within weeks more than half a century later. The trauma of the heavy winds, the storm surge, the mass destruction and loss of life in a narrative nonfictional telling of the near real time experience for many of the devastation that following proved moving, frightening, and much worse.

(St. Mary’s Orphanage after the hurricane that struck Galveston in Texas of 1900. “Ten nuns and at least 90 children were tragically killed despite the nuns’ valiant efforts to save the children by securing them to their own bodies with clothesline.”).

The hurricane that landed in mainland Texas ended what was considered the Golden Era of Galveston, now something more akin to nostalgia. The hurricane, the death of between 6,000 and 10,000 people in Galveston, the intense rebuilding to come, and Houston’s Spindletop oil discovery in 1901 convinced investors to look there for investment rather than Galveston. A seawall and raising of the city greatly reduced the human impact of another hurricane in Galveston in 1915. Hurricane Carla in 1961 led to more than a $100 million in damage in Galveston. While coming after this the publishing of Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History, Hurricane Ike in 2008 came with a greater than $2 billion price tag. Specifically in response to Isaac’s Hurricane of 2001, a commission form of city government originated in Galveston as a means, Larson argued, of combating corruption in the Tammany Hall style of “boss-ist” blend of charity and patronage.

(The 1900 Storm Memorial remembers the hurricane in Galveston, Texas at the Galveston Seawall. The need for this seawall became clear following the human and property cost from the hurricane that struck Galveston on September 8, 1900).

Other relevant, emotionally impactful stories emerged in Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History. An additional and poignant personal cost was visited upon Isaac Cline because of the Galveston hurricane of 1900. Cline would go on to have a respectable meteorological career, including a promotion, after missing badly on the call to not evacuate the city. The further careers of U.S. Weather Bureau Chief Willis Moore and meteorologist Joseph Cline are revealed. Whether the full events reveal justice is a question Erik Larson lets readers determine for themselves, with the benefit of feeling and context, which is part of what works in the format of the book itself. I rate Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson at 4.25-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Wednesday, September 16, 2020