Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History

Erik Larson

Oct 2011 · Sold by Vintage

About this ebook

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The riveting true story of the Galveston hurricane of 1900, still the deadliest natural disaster in American history—from the acclaimed author of The Devil in the White City

“A gripping account ... fascinating to its core, and all the more compelling for being true.” —The New York Times Book Review

September 8, 1900, began innocently in the seaside town of Galveston, Texas. Even Isaac Cline, resident meteorologist for the U.S. Weather Bureau failed to grasp the true meaning of the strange deep-sea swells and peculiar winds that greeted the city that morning. Mere hours later, Galveston found itself submerged in a monster hurricane that completely destroyed the town and killed over six thousand people—and Isaac Cline found himself the victim of a devastating personal tragedy.

Using Cline's own telegrams, letters, and reports, the testimony of scores of survivors, and our latest understanding of the science of hurricanes, Erik Larson builds a chronicle of one man's heroic struggle and fatal miscalculation in the face of a storm of unimaginable magnitude.

Ratings and reviews

As timely now as when I first read this years ago (with recent events in mind). While meteorology was still a relatively new science, this book details the two separate forecasts of a minor storm in Florida in late August 1900- one was correct, the other was not. The main subject of the book, Isacc Cline, would have to be the one to give the inevitable warning as the signs of something much worse approached on September 8, 1900. And how the lives of his wife and children, his younger brother, and the residents of the popular Gulf Coast city of Galveston, Texas would never be the same.

One of my favorite reads ever. A gripping account of the most deadly storm to ever hit the United States. The precision with which he pieces together the model that is Isaac Clone and the turn of the century, and in a concise fashion no less, was outstanding. This book is so gripping it will have an average reader scouring the internet for more and more information, especially in the visual realm.

This is Luke Mooney. I have this book. This is a great book! The 1900 Galveston, Texas, United States hurricane, which killed 12,000 people, was a bad Category 4 hurricane. But I think that Category 5 hurricanes are much worse. I think that the deadliest tropical cyclone ever was the 1970 Bhola cyclone, which killed 500,000 people. Tropical cyclones are powerful storms. I think that two of the costliest American hurricanes are Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Tropical cyclones are called hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean and Eastern Pacific Ocean, typhoons in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean, and cyclones in the Indian Ocean and Southwestern Pacific Ocean near Australia and New Zealand. I think that the 1900 Galveston, Texas, United States hurricane was both the deadliest natural disaster in United States history and the deadliest hurricane in United States history. Why didn't they evacuate when they were told to do so? Why didn't this storm have a name? Cool book!!

About the author

Erik Larson is the author of six national bestsellers—The Splendid and the Vile, Dead Wake, In the Garden of Beasts, Thunderstruck, The Devil in the White City, and Isaac’s Storm—which have collectively sold more than ten million copies. His books have been published in nearly twenty countries.