Book Review: Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson

Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
by Erik Larson (976.413 Lar)

It has been 120 years since Galveston was devastated by one of the deadliest hurricanes in our nation’s history. On the day that I started reading this book, another hurricane was bearing down on the Gulf Coast with incredible intensity, bringing to mind all the horrors of the after-effects of the destruction caused by the tidal surge that inundated lands along the Texas coast with the Galveston hurricane. I have always been fascinated by weather, especially storms, so this book was hard to put down. The story is presented from the point of view of Isaac Cline, head of the U.S. Weather Bureau in Galveston at the time of the hurricane. A combination of politics, misguided loyalties and vanity caused the people in charge of predicting weather to fail to provide the warning to the public so desperately needed before the storm hit. The descriptions of the days following the hurricane are horrific: soldiers sent to help survivors after the storm were horrified to see bodies piled up everywhere; boats could barely keep clear of the floating bodies of dead men, women and children. Throughout Galveston, people stepped from their homes to find corpses piled up at their doorsteps. No one could escape the stench of rotting flesh from people and animals alike. Attempts to bury hundreds of bodies at sea, weighted down with whatever could be found, was thwarted by the tide which brought the bodies right back into Galveston. The descriptions of the post-hurricane scenes were so powerful that I could not sleep the night I read them. We can be thankful that current storm prediction centers have the ability to warn us of impending destruction — if only we will heed the warnings. I highly recommend this book, another fascinating book by author Erik Larson.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Devil in the White City, also by Erik Larson.]

[ publisher’s official Isaac’s Storm web page ] | [ official Erik Larson web site ]

 

Recommended by Kim J.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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