Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
Skip to main content
.us
Hello Select your address
All
EN
Hello, sign in
Account & Lists
Returns & Orders
Cart
All
Disability Customer Support Clinic Customer Service Amazon Basics Best Sellers Prime Today's Deals New Releases Music Books Registry Fashion Amazon Home Gift Cards Pharmacy Toys & Games Sell Coupons Computers Automotive Video Games Home Improvement Beauty & Personal Care Smart Home Pet Supplies Health & Household Luxury Stores Audible Handmade TV & Video

  • Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in...
  • ›
  • Customer reviews

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
5,521 global ratings
5 star
63%
4 star
25%
3 star
9%
2 star
2%
1 star
1%
Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History

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

byErik Larson
Write a review
How customer reviews and ratings work

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon
See All Buying Options

Top positive review

All positive reviews›
wxnotes
4.0 out of 5 starsOne of the worst natural disasters in American history
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 10, 2011
Galveston, Texas was one of the most vulnerable US cities ever built. The tens of thousands of residents on the island in 1900 were unaware of this fact. Times were too exciting to be concerned with natural disasters: the frontier had closed, the American West was booming, and the race with Houston was on to become Texas' primary port city. Besides, their trusted meteorologist, Isaac Cline, insisted as a rule that Texas was safe from hurricanes. Isaac's Storm details the disastrous hurricane that permanently changed the rules and the history of Galveston forever. Erik Larson's carefully researched book explains the systemic mistakes that contributed to the disaster and shares the accounts of those who survived the worst of the storm. Larson prudently combines the perspectives of the government officials, victims, and rescuers to tell a complete story of one of America's worst natural disasters.

While Isaac Cline serves as Larson's main source, the book is more of a story about the hurricane than about Isaac himself. Still, Isaac Cline was a fascinating character and Larson gives a detailed history of his early life and education background. It quickly becomes apparent that Cline was a good man trying to do his best to understand and predict the weather despite working for the incompetent US Weather Bureau. Isaac Cline's shortcomings were not directly his fault, as he lived in a time of limited technology and scientific understanding of the weather and a career dependent upon keeping his superiors appeased.

The Weather Bureau's Washington officials, headed by Willis Moore, were more interested in raising their own stature than improving their department. The Bureau's forecasts took on an aura of supreme confidence, characterized by a "complete absence of doubt or qualification." (Larson 114). Ignoring evidence to the contrary, they predicted the incoming disturbance to recurve northward before reaching Texas, since that's what all West Indies hurricanes did. In reality, the disturbance was a powerful storm guided westward by high pressure over the eastern US.

The Bureau also clashed with Cuban weather forecasters, who were decades ahead of their time due to the warning system established by Fr. Bernito Vines in the late 1800s. Larson's analysis of the romantic nature of Cuban forecasters may contain some hyperbole, but the primary theme is that the Cubans took the cautious approach due to the uncertainty of forecasting, while the optimistic US Weather Bureau would not even mention the word "hurricane" in its forecasts in order not to agitate the public. The decision by Moore to block weather cables from Cuba would be considered criminal by today's standards.

Since the Weather Bureau's leadership was counterproductive, the reader may hope that Isaac Cline will step up as the hero and save the residents of Galveston from impending doom. Isaac, the loyal servant, was not up to the task. He gave lectures and wrote editorials supporting the idea that the island was safe from a major disaster. One of the biggest strengths of Isaac's Storm is Larson's analysis of Galveson islands' attitude, corroborated by Cline, toward the island's vulnerability. At the turn of the century, Americans began to feel invincible to natural disasters. The iron, steel, and steam age was at its peak and people were rushing to western boomtowns with promises of wealth and success. Galveston was also in direct competition with Houston as Texas' port city, so it certainly could not show any sign of weakness.

Any natural disaster of this magnitude requires a perfect hit and a long list of contributing factors. But above all, the science and technology had not yet reached the level needed to prevent a disaster. In the 21st Century, people still live dangerously close to the coast, track forecasts can still go wrong, and people still are reluctant to evacuate. The difference is that there is an advanced communication and rescue network to relay the latest information and advise people to leave, or save them if they are trapped. As Larson notes, even a minor upgrade such as ship radios would have allowed the Louisiana to radio ahead and warn Galveston that a hurricane was coming. As Larson's map shows, not all of Galveston Island was covered in water, so the death toll could have been mitigated with any sort of definite warning about the hazard that was approaching.

Larson focuses mostly on the human and societal causes and impacts, but also includes a brief but dramatic elucidation of the hurricane's inception from an easterly wave into a dangerous cyclone. The account was well researched and is meteorologically correct, but the power of the storm is much better described by firsthand observations than by the combination of scientific definitions and vivid imagery of water vapor condensing, rising, and mixing while African children observe the clouds (Larson 22).

As a reporter and historian, Larson is charged with uncovering the "whys" and "hows" of the Galveston Hurricane and connecting them with the broader themes of US History. To an extent it is necessary to describe the basic laws of nature that govern the hurricane and the prevailing wind patterns that guided it straight to Galveston. Hurricanes are ferocious and extremely powerful, but their purpose is to redistribute heat in the atmosphere and ocean, not to punish the ignorant humans that dared build a city on its coastline.

The above is not necessarily intended as a critique of Larson, as his descriptions of the developing hurricane are pithy and limited to early in the book. Still, Larson's third-person storm narratives, specifically pages 26-27, are too melodramatic. Larson introduces Chaos Theory as the cause of the hurricane's formation and then quotes William Jennings Bryan's famous refute of manifest destiny spoken merely a month before the Galveston Hurricane:

Destiny is the subterfuge of the invertebrate, who, lacking the courage to oppose error, seeks some plausible excuse for supporting it.

The quote does sum up the errors of the Weather Bureau, Galveston residents, and Isaac, but the quote is out of place without a deeper explanation of the political and cultural feuds ongoing at the time. It would have been interesting and pertinent to add more about the prevailing culture instead of the mechanics of hurricane formation. Considering the number of mistakes leading up to the hurricane, one might have expected some redemption or admission of failure in Isaac's Storm's closing chapters. Unfortunately, Larson finds that little was learned. Galveston constructed a sea wall that has since held, but it was impossible to save the city's once booming economy. Willis Moore of the Weather Bureau fabricated Isaac Cline's account into folklore, suggesting that thousands of lives were saved by the Bureau and that hurricane warnings had been issued in advance. Neither was true. Moore wrote the storm off as an anomaly, a freak of nature (Larson 272). Larson notes that a few editorials were critical of the Bureau, but Moore covered up the injustices for the most part. We now know that the Galveston storm did not precipitate reform and history repeated itself in the 1928 Lake Okeechobee Hurricane.

Considering the book's title, the most surprising conclusion is that Isaac Cline is not the hero of the Galveston Hurricane. Cline did his best, but his weather knowledge and instincts were simply not enough with the technology of the time and conflicting bureau instincts. Haunted by the storm, Isaac went on to become a leading hurricane expert, especially in the area of storm surge, which was the primary killer in Galveston. Isaac never forgot that his decisions cost many lives, including some of his family members. A storm of this caliber changes history forever and most of it is not for the better.

To aid understanding visually, Isaac's Storm could have benefited from some pictures of the devastation and a map of Galveston Bay. While describing the aftermath, Larson quotes several residents and visitors who explain they were left speechless or that words could not describe the devastation. Although the book omits pictures, it is easy to look a few up on the internet (see Wikipedia)

A map of the Galveston Bay area from the time would also have been helpful. Galveston Island's geographic location explains how storm surge battered the island from both directions, but it was hard to envision Larson's descriptions without seeing how the long fetch from a northerly wind could create a surge on the backside of the island. In addition, the locations of various railroads and the large bridge were left to the readers' imagination.

The 1900 Galveston Hurricane goes down in the record books as the deadliest hurricane in US History by far, with an estimated 8,000 to 12,000 dead. Considering the devastation and the wealth of available primary sources, it is surprising that it took until the 100th anniversary for an historian to write a full account of the storm. With hurricane science finally advancing significantly in the 1940s, a death toll of this magnitude will almost certainly never be seen again in the US. Unfortunately, science and advance warnings cannot protect property, and we have seen Miami (1926) and New Orleans (2005) both suffer long term economic damage. Future hurricanes will undoubtedly wipe out coastal development again.

Those who follow recent US Hurricanes may also be left wondering why the Galveston Hurricane was an impressive Category 4 at landfall, while other recent hurricanes such as Rita (2005) and Ike (2008) weakened before landfall in the western Gulf. The most likely explanation is that a warm eddy broke off from the loop current and drifted westward until it was in shallow water off the Texas coast. With no cold water below to mix upward, the storm was able to intensify in a region that is generally incapable of maintaining a Category 4 hurricane. Since Larson took the time to describe how hurricanes form, he should have gone into more detail about the loop current eddies.

Isaac's Storm is a well researched book that is enlightening and informative for both the weather enthusiast and the average reader. The chronicles of the weather bureau's failures are especially stunning. Where historical details were not available, Larson constructs a reasonable story to help the reader envision life at the end of the nineteenth century. The accounts of the storm are as vivid and terrifying as a horror novel. What is most interesting about Isaac's Storm is not just Isaac Cline's personal beliefs, but the defiant attitude of technological superiority that permeated through all levels of society from common citizens up to the US government officials. Galveston in 1900 was extremely vulnerable to any kind of storm surge and there was precedent from the 1886 Indianola Hurricane. Ignorance and overconfidence were a deadly combination.
Read more
5 people found this helpful

Top critical review

All critical reviews›
Verity Brown
3.0 out of 5 starsToo many books in one
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 25, 2022
As intriguing as this book was, it was sometimes difficult to follow. Clearly, personal politics and power-mongering in the Weather Service played a significant role in what happened, but the players were presented more as a bunch of names than as individual personalities.

This book seems to be three (or perhaps four) different books combined, but with material left out in order to jam them all together. Primarily, it's a biography of Issac Cline, but without all the pieces of a full biography. Next, it's a history of the Galveston hurricane of 1900, but with fewer first-person accounts than I would have preferred in such a history. It's also history of the Weather Service, but a very dry one. Finally, it's a tantalizing taste (but just a taste) of the history of hurricanes and hurricane prediction.

None of these partial books was complete enough to be fully satisfying. I want to know more. Perhaps that's a kind of virtue, but I would rather read a book that leaves me feeling satisfied with the amount of information I received.
Read more
3 people found this helpful

Search
Sort by
Top reviews
Filter by
All reviewers
4 star only
Text, image, video
Filtered by
4 starClear filter
1,434 total ratings, 500 with reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

From the United States

wxnotes
4.0 out of 5 stars One of the worst natural disasters in American history
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 10, 2011
Verified Purchase
Galveston, Texas was one of the most vulnerable US cities ever built. The tens of thousands of residents on the island in 1900 were unaware of this fact. Times were too exciting to be concerned with natural disasters: the frontier had closed, the American West was booming, and the race with Houston was on to become Texas' primary port city. Besides, their trusted meteorologist, Isaac Cline, insisted as a rule that Texas was safe from hurricanes. Isaac's Storm details the disastrous hurricane that permanently changed the rules and the history of Galveston forever. Erik Larson's carefully researched book explains the systemic mistakes that contributed to the disaster and shares the accounts of those who survived the worst of the storm. Larson prudently combines the perspectives of the government officials, victims, and rescuers to tell a complete story of one of America's worst natural disasters.

While Isaac Cline serves as Larson's main source, the book is more of a story about the hurricane than about Isaac himself. Still, Isaac Cline was a fascinating character and Larson gives a detailed history of his early life and education background. It quickly becomes apparent that Cline was a good man trying to do his best to understand and predict the weather despite working for the incompetent US Weather Bureau. Isaac Cline's shortcomings were not directly his fault, as he lived in a time of limited technology and scientific understanding of the weather and a career dependent upon keeping his superiors appeased.

The Weather Bureau's Washington officials, headed by Willis Moore, were more interested in raising their own stature than improving their department. The Bureau's forecasts took on an aura of supreme confidence, characterized by a "complete absence of doubt or qualification." (Larson 114). Ignoring evidence to the contrary, they predicted the incoming disturbance to recurve northward before reaching Texas, since that's what all West Indies hurricanes did. In reality, the disturbance was a powerful storm guided westward by high pressure over the eastern US.

The Bureau also clashed with Cuban weather forecasters, who were decades ahead of their time due to the warning system established by Fr. Bernito Vines in the late 1800s. Larson's analysis of the romantic nature of Cuban forecasters may contain some hyperbole, but the primary theme is that the Cubans took the cautious approach due to the uncertainty of forecasting, while the optimistic US Weather Bureau would not even mention the word "hurricane" in its forecasts in order not to agitate the public. The decision by Moore to block weather cables from Cuba would be considered criminal by today's standards.

Since the Weather Bureau's leadership was counterproductive, the reader may hope that Isaac Cline will step up as the hero and save the residents of Galveston from impending doom. Isaac, the loyal servant, was not up to the task. He gave lectures and wrote editorials supporting the idea that the island was safe from a major disaster. One of the biggest strengths of Isaac's Storm is Larson's analysis of Galveson islands' attitude, corroborated by Cline, toward the island's vulnerability. At the turn of the century, Americans began to feel invincible to natural disasters. The iron, steel, and steam age was at its peak and people were rushing to western boomtowns with promises of wealth and success. Galveston was also in direct competition with Houston as Texas' port city, so it certainly could not show any sign of weakness.

Any natural disaster of this magnitude requires a perfect hit and a long list of contributing factors. But above all, the science and technology had not yet reached the level needed to prevent a disaster. In the 21st Century, people still live dangerously close to the coast, track forecasts can still go wrong, and people still are reluctant to evacuate. The difference is that there is an advanced communication and rescue network to relay the latest information and advise people to leave, or save them if they are trapped. As Larson notes, even a minor upgrade such as ship radios would have allowed the Louisiana to radio ahead and warn Galveston that a hurricane was coming. As Larson's map shows, not all of Galveston Island was covered in water, so the death toll could have been mitigated with any sort of definite warning about the hazard that was approaching.

Larson focuses mostly on the human and societal causes and impacts, but also includes a brief but dramatic elucidation of the hurricane's inception from an easterly wave into a dangerous cyclone. The account was well researched and is meteorologically correct, but the power of the storm is much better described by firsthand observations than by the combination of scientific definitions and vivid imagery of water vapor condensing, rising, and mixing while African children observe the clouds (Larson 22).

As a reporter and historian, Larson is charged with uncovering the "whys" and "hows" of the Galveston Hurricane and connecting them with the broader themes of US History. To an extent it is necessary to describe the basic laws of nature that govern the hurricane and the prevailing wind patterns that guided it straight to Galveston. Hurricanes are ferocious and extremely powerful, but their purpose is to redistribute heat in the atmosphere and ocean, not to punish the ignorant humans that dared build a city on its coastline.

The above is not necessarily intended as a critique of Larson, as his descriptions of the developing hurricane are pithy and limited to early in the book. Still, Larson's third-person storm narratives, specifically pages 26-27, are too melodramatic. Larson introduces Chaos Theory as the cause of the hurricane's formation and then quotes William Jennings Bryan's famous refute of manifest destiny spoken merely a month before the Galveston Hurricane:

Destiny is the subterfuge of the invertebrate, who, lacking the courage to oppose error, seeks some plausible excuse for supporting it.

The quote does sum up the errors of the Weather Bureau, Galveston residents, and Isaac, but the quote is out of place without a deeper explanation of the political and cultural feuds ongoing at the time. It would have been interesting and pertinent to add more about the prevailing culture instead of the mechanics of hurricane formation. Considering the number of mistakes leading up to the hurricane, one might have expected some redemption or admission of failure in Isaac's Storm's closing chapters. Unfortunately, Larson finds that little was learned. Galveston constructed a sea wall that has since held, but it was impossible to save the city's once booming economy. Willis Moore of the Weather Bureau fabricated Isaac Cline's account into folklore, suggesting that thousands of lives were saved by the Bureau and that hurricane warnings had been issued in advance. Neither was true. Moore wrote the storm off as an anomaly, a freak of nature (Larson 272). Larson notes that a few editorials were critical of the Bureau, but Moore covered up the injustices for the most part. We now know that the Galveston storm did not precipitate reform and history repeated itself in the 1928 Lake Okeechobee Hurricane.

Considering the book's title, the most surprising conclusion is that Isaac Cline is not the hero of the Galveston Hurricane. Cline did his best, but his weather knowledge and instincts were simply not enough with the technology of the time and conflicting bureau instincts. Haunted by the storm, Isaac went on to become a leading hurricane expert, especially in the area of storm surge, which was the primary killer in Galveston. Isaac never forgot that his decisions cost many lives, including some of his family members. A storm of this caliber changes history forever and most of it is not for the better.

To aid understanding visually, Isaac's Storm could have benefited from some pictures of the devastation and a map of Galveston Bay. While describing the aftermath, Larson quotes several residents and visitors who explain they were left speechless or that words could not describe the devastation. Although the book omits pictures, it is easy to look a few up on the internet (see Wikipedia)

A map of the Galveston Bay area from the time would also have been helpful. Galveston Island's geographic location explains how storm surge battered the island from both directions, but it was hard to envision Larson's descriptions without seeing how the long fetch from a northerly wind could create a surge on the backside of the island. In addition, the locations of various railroads and the large bridge were left to the readers' imagination.

The 1900 Galveston Hurricane goes down in the record books as the deadliest hurricane in US History by far, with an estimated 8,000 to 12,000 dead. Considering the devastation and the wealth of available primary sources, it is surprising that it took until the 100th anniversary for an historian to write a full account of the storm. With hurricane science finally advancing significantly in the 1940s, a death toll of this magnitude will almost certainly never be seen again in the US. Unfortunately, science and advance warnings cannot protect property, and we have seen Miami (1926) and New Orleans (2005) both suffer long term economic damage. Future hurricanes will undoubtedly wipe out coastal development again.

Those who follow recent US Hurricanes may also be left wondering why the Galveston Hurricane was an impressive Category 4 at landfall, while other recent hurricanes such as Rita (2005) and Ike (2008) weakened before landfall in the western Gulf. The most likely explanation is that a warm eddy broke off from the loop current and drifted westward until it was in shallow water off the Texas coast. With no cold water below to mix upward, the storm was able to intensify in a region that is generally incapable of maintaining a Category 4 hurricane. Since Larson took the time to describe how hurricanes form, he should have gone into more detail about the loop current eddies.

Isaac's Storm is a well researched book that is enlightening and informative for both the weather enthusiast and the average reader. The chronicles of the weather bureau's failures are especially stunning. Where historical details were not available, Larson constructs a reasonable story to help the reader envision life at the end of the nineteenth century. The accounts of the storm are as vivid and terrifying as a horror novel. What is most interesting about Isaac's Storm is not just Isaac Cline's personal beliefs, but the defiant attitude of technological superiority that permeated through all levels of society from common citizens up to the US government officials. Galveston in 1900 was extremely vulnerable to any kind of storm surge and there was precedent from the 1886 Indianola Hurricane. Ignorance and overconfidence were a deadly combination.
5 people found this helpful
Helpful
Report abuse
    Showing 0 comments

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.


voracious reader
4.0 out of 5 stars A Man and The Storm That Defined Him
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 25, 2011
Verified Purchase
Issac's storm is the true story of the life and career of the head of the U.S. weather station in Galveston at the time of the watershed 1900 hurricane. This hurricane defined the city of Galveston and Issac Cline forever. Galveston has since taken a back seat to its neighbor to the north, Houston. Its economy has been tied to the beach tourist trade and its medical school, The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. It never again attained its per-hurricaine commercial importance. Before the hurricane Galveston was the most important commercial and cultural center in Texas. It was developing its important cargo port status which moved all sorts of goods from the south and near west to and from the east coast and Europe. This was before Spindeltop when one of the most important trade goods was cotton. Since then the deep water port which the city of Houston dredged on the safer mainland has taken over all the port trade. Of course, it is now a petrochemical trade.
Issac is a rigid obsessive compulsive hard working and dedicated meteorologist working within the brittle confines of the U.S. weather bureau. He was militaristic in his loyalty, adherence to weather service culture, order and steadfast routine. Due to male egos including that of Willis Moore head of the U.S. weather service many more lives were lost than necessary. This was the single largest national disaster in U.S. history. First due to jealousy and competition with the Cuban weather service and the famous Belen Observatory Willis Moore forbade any communication over Western Union or AT&T Lines from Cuba with the U.S. weather stations. Therefore, the earliest warning about this storm as it approached Cuba never arrived at the New Orlean's weather station. The Cuban station first observed its potential danger to the Carribean and the U.S. gulf coast on August 31st when it would have sent a first wire had it been allowed to do so. By Wed.September 5th Jover in Cuba called the storm a "hurricane." There would have been time to evacuate the city before the storm hit on September 8th. Still no U.S. weather service received any news from Cuba, because they were precluded from using either the U.S. telegraph or phone lines. The Cubans according to Moore were alarmists and too ready to label a storm a hurricane. There was also the patronistic view that calling a storm a "hurricane" would frighten the women and children. Added to that horrendous bias and error, the business interests in Galveston chose a pollyanna view of the island's geography. The weather service acknowledged storm damage to Indianola twice from hurricanes that made landfall to the north and west of Galveston but downplayed the fact that the city was decimated and finally destroyed from the damage. The weather service and important business men of Galveston claimed that Galveston's unique geography protected it from hurricane damage when nothing could have been further from the truth. Even when the beginnings of the storm struck the coast and high winds and flooding began, Issac failed to become alarmed. Trains set out from Houston and New Orleans in the morning filled with tourists and business people only to become stranded after arriving. It would have been a simple precaution to telegraph the station masters and advise them to stop all departures to Galveston at the point of embarkation on Sept. 8th. This was not done, and at least 85 people drowned in the trains which bore them before the storm was over. Trains had to bridge the bay from Houston or points east on train trestles. These were particularly vulnerable.
Even after the hurricane wreaked such havoc in the city where it was responsible for at least 6000 deaths only the Houston Post properly criticized the U.S. weather service. The Post editorial stated that the weather service reports for the day represented a total failure of the U.S weather bureau. Even after the storm began to cause damage, Issac Cline failed to realize its danger and did not take proper precautions either for himself or his family.
Issac Cline paid dearly in personal loses for his failure. He lost his wife Cora and was transferred to the New Orleans station but with a salary bump and promotion. Still wearing his wife's diamond ring hanging from a chain around his neck, he never forgave himself. His younger brother, Josef, also a weather service employee became alarmed earlier than Issac and urged him to sound the alarm in the city. Issac did not do so and his relationship with Josef was forever marred. Josef for his conduct received a demotion and a salary reduction and was sent to the weather service station in Puerto Rico. Because Josef was right, but the service didn't like the fact that he was right, he was penalized. Josef was more accurate than Issac and the brothers barely spoke thereafter. Issac lost many friends and colleagues and realized he underestimated the danger of the storm. He had to walk the streets filled with funeral pyres daily, but the citizens never blamed him. They probably should have, but meteorological science was in its infancy.

Issac's Storm is rather dry until the hurricane hits and we watch his futile efforts to save his wife and children. There is little in the way of a rounding out of his character. His business like behavior which divorced emotion from his science may be partly to blame, because the research documents were rather skimpy. However, he did write a memoir from which some information could have been gleaned. There was a great deal of scientific data about storm systems, prevailing winds, and weather patterns that were hard to envision. I read and understand scientific data rather easily, but here I have to agree with other reviewers. This book would have been much improved with diagrams, charts, maps, and photos. All of these things exist especially the photos. We could have had a photo of Issac and his family for one. There were and are numerous photos of Galveston both before and after the storm, but none of them found their way into the book. Further, there could have been an internet interactive site with demonstration of the moving storm. The technology is there. When are we going to see this tool used in this way to coordinate with books. The author has seen the reviews but there has been no attempt to bring out a new edition amended with these items.
6 people found this helpful
Helpful
Report abuse
    Showing 0 comments

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.


tiggermommy
4.0 out of 5 stars Ok book
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 13, 2023
Verified Purchase
This book to me was very slow in the beginning. About half way through the book got better glad I read it, but I read it for book club.
Helpful
Report abuse
    Showing 0 comments

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.


Mary Lins
VINE VOICE
4.0 out of 5 stars Riveting!
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 23, 2022
Verified Purchase
“Isaac’s Storm” by Erik Larson, tells the true story of the 1900 Galveston hurricane that devastated Galveston and allowed Houston to become the 4th largest port in the country. Mainly this is the story of Isaac Cline, who was a meteorologist at the time, when meteorology and forecasting were rudimentary (compared to today). The book is rich with details of the storm’s path, progress, and destruction, as well as the peccadilloes and politics of the US Weather Bureau of the era.

I currently live, and grew up in, the southeast part of Houston, just 30 miles from Galveston. We regard Galveston as our most fun and magical sister-city. From the time I was a child to just last month, when I go over the Causeway on I-45 and onto the island, if feel like the scene in “The Wizard of Oz” when Dorothy goes from sepia Kansas into Technicolor Oz. I truly love Galveston and have always been enamored with her rich history. (Thank goodness its Juneteeth history has finally been recognized with a Federal Holiday!)

All that to say that I found Larson’s account to be well researched, rich is detail, riveting, and both heartbreaking and hopeful. I don’t read much non-fiction, but this was as engrossing and “close to home”.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
Report abuse
    Showing 0 comments

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.


Kathy Spurlock
4.0 out of 5 stars Very informative. Detailed, with pictures.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 22, 2022
Verified Purchase
This book starts out slow, giving too much attention to who's related to who, and who the top money is in Galveston at the time. Who cares, get on with what happened! Once you get passed that, chapters 1 and 2, then the story begins to emerge and form. Very detailed and Isaac was the meteorologist at the time in Galveston, and that's why it's called Isaac's storm. Back then, in 1900, they didn't name the hurricanes like they do today. Isaac also didn't have the knowledge or technology that we have today, however he was the first meteorologist to help future meteorologists understand about the strength and catagories of hurricanes. It was Isaac that taught us that the tides, the widths and timings of the swallows of the waves in the ocean determined the strength of a storm, and not the wind or barometric pressure. He discovered this watching this during this great storm and that helped us in the future to be more prepared for all hurricanes in the future. This is an historic book. Very good reading.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
Report abuse
    Showing 0 comments

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.


scope
4.0 out of 5 stars Heartbreaking
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 30, 2022
Verified Purchase
As Ian wreaks vast devastation,
This book is a deep exploration
Of storms that are savage and lives that they ravage.
Our planet’s a fragile creation.
#bookreviewsaslimericks
Helpful
Report abuse
    Showing 0 comments

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.


Mal Warwick
4.0 out of 5 stars A hurricane deadlier than Katrina
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 2, 2016
Verified Purchase
Isaac’s Storm is a detailed account of a massive hurricane that struck the coast of Texas in September 1900. The storm wreaked havoc across a wide swath of the country but devastated one city in particular. In Larson’s words, “Galveston became Atlantis.”

The deadliest hurricane in history?

The book’s subtitle refers to the unnamed storm as “the Deadliest Hurricane in History,” but that’s far from true. Individual cyclones (simply another name for hurricanes) that have struck the coast of Bengal and Orissa in northeastern India (and now Bangladesh) have killed as many as 100,000 people. Several have felled tens of thousands in modern history. The storm that virtually destroyed Galveston in 1900 caused fewer than 10,000 deaths (probably no more than 8,000). In truth, then, “Isaac’s storm” was the deadliest only in US history. But publishers have a way of dramatizing books’ content with sensational titles. Clearly, they sell more books that way.

Galveston today is a city of fewer than 50,000 inhabitants, but in 1900 it “stood on the verge of greatness. If things continued as they were, Galveston would soon achieve the stature of New Orleans, Baltimore, or San Francisco. . . [T]hey were in a winner-take-all race against Houston, just fifty miles to the north.”

Who was Isaac, and why was it his storm?

The Isaac of the title was Dr. Isaac M. Cline, the chief weatherman in Texas. He was also a physician specializing in the effects of weather on human health. Isaac had risen through the ranks of the Weather Service because he had proved to be one of the most diligent and perceptive forecasters in the bureau. In the years following the Galveston hurricane, Isaac spoke and wrote widely about having saved thousands of lives by warning of the danger before the most destructive waves hit the city. In fact, as Larson makes clear, he did no such thing. However, he had indeed perceived that a storm was coming, and even defied orders from Washington to spread the word. Unfortunately, he had no clue that the storm was a hurricane that would blast through Galveston with sustained winds of 180 miles per hour and gusting to more than 200 miles per hour.

In Isaac’s Storm, Larson skillfully intersperses a sketch of Isaac’s life with a detailed portrait of the hurricane. Originating in Western Africa and making its way across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, the storm had gathered such force that Cuban meteorologists identified it as a hurricane shortly after it arrived in the region. Sadly, the director of the US Weather Service was a racist and obsessed with control, and he had prevented the Cuban forecast from being transmitted because he thought the Cubans inferior. Later, the director went even further, refusing to acknowledge Isaac’s warnings about the coming storm. (In years afterward, the director shamelessly claimed loudly and often that he had actually issued warnings about the devastating storm.)

About the author

Erik Larson is unquestionably one of the most talented and accomplished nonfiction authors at work in the US today. He is probably best known for his runaway bestseller, The Devil in the White City, which won numerous awards, including an Edgar in 2004.
17 people found this helpful
Helpful
Report abuse
    Showing 0 comments

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.


Susan Coughlin
4.0 out of 5 stars Where are the photos?
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 12, 2022
Verified Purchase
I have read this book 3 times - once each in HB, PB, and Kindle.
If I were just rating the text, I would give it 5+ stars. It was just as exciting the third time as the first. Well researched and well written.
However, there is one glaring problem with the book. The hard cover has photographs. The PB and Kindle do not. The photographs add immensely to the understanding of the extent of the storm's damage and need to be included in all editions.
Helpful
Report abuse
    Showing 0 comments

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.


Rick O
4.0 out of 5 stars The deadliest natural disaster in America is told by one of the rising stars in literature, Erik Larson.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 13, 2012
Verified Purchase
The deadliest natural disaster in America is told by one of the rising stars in literature, Erik Larson. The time is 1900, the place is Galveston, Texas, the event is a massive hurricane aimed directly at the Texas island. This storm will kill 6,000 to 12,000 people depending on which report you read over the next hundred years. How did it come without warning? Why didn't the newly formed U.S Weather Bureau take this storm seriously? This is the main theme of this non-fiction thriller.

It seems that there are several reasons for the lack of a forewarning. The main reason seems to be the imperialistic attitude of the U.S.Weather Bureau in Cuba. They did everything they could to muffle the so called alarmism of the local Cuban weather forecasters. Even though the Cubans were more experienced with hurricanes, the U.S. thought that their dire warnings caused unnecessary panic. Therefore, the hurricane that just passed Cuba in a much milder form was not judged to be extremely dangerous to the U.S. coast. According to the local Cuban forecasters, that was a huge mistake.

The second problem was the weather bureau's agent in Galveston, Isaac Cline. Mr. Cline had previously published a book which stated that no hurricane could do severe damage to the Galveston/ Gulf area. That statement alone stopped the proposed building of a seawall. On the day of the hurricane, Isaac finally gave in and said that he warned people to get off the beach and seek higher ground. He said that he saved at least 6,000 lives because of it, yet no witnesses were ever found to substantiate that caveat. The book is filled with short sad stories about local families that survived and didn't survive.

The loss of human life was much greater than 'The Johnstown Flood' of 1889, which killed 2,000 people, or 'The San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906' that killed 3,000 people. The only good to come out of the Galveston hurricane was that the Island finally got their seawall, and the U.S. Weather Bureau paid far more attention to hurricanes and to local prognosticators. As with any Erik Larson book, it was an extremely exciting well written book and I would highly recommend it to readers of all genre.
8 people found this helpful
Helpful
Report abuse
    Showing 0 comments

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.


Sara s
4.0 out of 5 stars interesting but…
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 1, 2022
Verified Purchase
Interesting but maybe I should not have read this at the beginning of hurricane season and living in Houston and knowing so much of the island. Just heartbreaking how he described the devastation.
Interesting but pick the right time to read this one
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
Report abuse
    Showing 0 comments

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.


  • ←Previous page
  • Next page→

Need customer service? Click here
‹ See all details for Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in...

Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations
›
View or edit your browsing history
After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Back to top
Get to Know Us
  • Careers
  • Amazon Newsletter
  • About Amazon
  • Accessibility
  • Sustainability
  • Press Center
  • Investor Relations
  • Amazon Devices
  • Amazon Science
Make Money with Us
  • Sell products on Amazon
  • Sell apps on Amazon
  • Supply to Amazon
  • Protect & Build Your Brand
  • Become an Affiliate
  • Become a Delivery Driver
  • Start a package delivery business
  • Advertise Your Products
  • Self-Publish with Us
  • Host an Amazon Hub
  • ›See More Ways to Make Money
Amazon Payment Products
  • Amazon Rewards Visa Signature Cards
  • Amazon Store Card
  • Amazon Secured Card
  • Amazon Business Card
  • Shop with Points
  • Credit Card Marketplace
  • Reload Your Balance
  • Amazon Currency Converter
Let Us Help You
  • Amazon and COVID-19
  • Your Account
  • Your Orders
  • Shipping Rates & Policies
  • Amazon Prime
  • Returns & Replacements
  • Manage Your Content and Devices
  • Your Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
  • Amazon Assistant
  • Help
English
United States
Amazon Music
Stream millions
of songs
Amazon Advertising
Find, attract, and
engage customers
Amazon Drive
Cloud storage
from Amazon
6pm
Score deals
on fashion brands
AbeBooks
Books, art
& collectibles
ACX
Audiobook Publishing
Made Easy
Sell on Amazon
Start a Selling Account
 
Amazon Business
Everything For
Your Business
Amazon Fresh
Groceries & More
Right To Your Door
AmazonGlobal
Ship Orders
Internationally
Home Services
Experienced Pros
Happiness Guarantee
Amazon Ignite
Sell your original
Digital Educational
Resources
Amazon Web Services
Scalable Cloud
Computing Services
Audible
Listen to Books & Original
Audio Performances
 
Book Depository
Books With Free
Delivery Worldwide
Box Office Mojo
Find Movie
Box Office Data
ComiXology
Thousands of
Digital Comics
DPReview
Digital
Photography
Fabric
Sewing, Quilting
& Knitting
Goodreads
Book reviews
& recommendations
IMDb
Movies, TV
& Celebrities
 
IMDbPro
Get Info Entertainment
Professionals Need
Kindle Direct Publishing
Indie Digital & Print Publishing
Made Easy
Amazon Photos
Unlimited Photo Storage
Free With Prime
Prime Video Direct
Video Distribution
Made Easy
Shopbop
Designer
Fashion Brands
Amazon Warehouse
Great Deals on
Quality Used Products
Whole Foods Market
America’s Healthiest
Grocery Store
 
Woot!
Deals and
Shenanigans
Zappos
Shoes &
Clothing
Ring
Smart Home
Security Systems
eero WiFi
Stream 4K Video
in Every Room
Blink
Smart Security
for Every Home
Neighbors App
Real-Time Crime
& Safety Alerts
Amazon Subscription Boxes
Top subscription boxes – right to your door
 
    PillPack
Pharmacy Simplified
Amazon Renewed
Like-new products
you can trust
     
  • Conditions of Use
  • Privacy Notice
  • Your Ads Privacy Choices
© 1996-2023, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates