Isaac’s Storm, Erik Larson

.Some books need meticulous and comprehensive research if it’s going to work. My go to is always Larson. The man is thorough, a terrific writer, and doesn’t cut corners. This book is on the hurricane of Sep 1900 that hit Galveston and killed, though stats range widely, b/w 6-10K people… though one agency stated the storm claimed 8,124 souls… the deadliest natural disaster in US history. Isaac was the town meteorologist and he was confident storm surges and belittled hurricane fears were of little matter to Galveston. The site would escape injury and harm. Like most everyone in town when the winds and water began to stir, they showed little concern. Everyone was excited and reveled in the coolness of an otherwise humid and hot day. Even as it flowed b/w the high curbs of the streets everyone thought it was fun. But as the bathhouses simply fell into the sea and water rise it did not become fun anymore. Mother nature can do that… a sense of awe, then terror. Many in a class of people of mostly landlocked men believed God put storms on earth expressly for their entertainment. The waters rise, houses crumbled, the rain slammed against interior walls of homes with such force it exploded in pixels of light in otherwise complete and utter darkness that encased the city. Isaac’s stubbornness, his conflicts with brother Joseph in the fact that Joseph was right urging everyone to evacuate, the oncoming and aftermath of the storm, the utter incompetence of the Meteorological society at the time. It makes you scared reading this book, because you can’t help think that if this type of occurrence happened them, what can actually happen now? What we have seen is only mother nature’s first course.