Walttriznastories's Blog

A GREAT READ ABOUT HURRICANES

November 29, 2012 at 8:01 pm Leave a comment

Isaac’s
Storm
by
Erik Larson

While the horror of Hurricane Sandy is still in our minds, I had a brother-in-law lose his home; I want to suggest an interesting read about a hurricane that was far more destructive. It may have not caused as much property damage, but the loss of life was unbelievable.

The subject of this book is a hurricane that occurred on September 8, 1900 and still remains the most deadly natural disaster experienced by this country.

Isaac Cline was the weatherman working in Galveston, Texas for the U.S. Weather Bureau, a relatively new organization. On the island of Cuba, members of the same organization were stationed, along with local weathermen. They knew a storm was coming from reports by ships in the Atlantic. The Cubans said the storm would enter the Gulf of Mexico. The Americans said that no hurricane had ever entered the Gulf, to their knowledge; the storm would make a 90º turn on journey up the eastern United States. Cline received no warning, and by the time he suspected a storm was about to impact Galveston, it was too late. The book states that over 6000 people lost their lives to this storm. A recent article in our local paper reviewing past hurricanes puts the death toll at between 8000 and12000.

For those who are interested with what life was like before we had technology to predict weather that we have now, I suggest you read this book.

Entry filed under: READER'S OPPORTUNITIES, READERS AND WRITERS FORUM, Update, Walt Trizna, WALT'S OBSERVATIONS, WALT'S OPINIONS. Tags: Erik Larson, Galveston, hurricane, hurricane sandy, storms.