Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson
full title; Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
from goodreads;
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 in what remains the greatest natural disaster in American history--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. Riveting, powerful, and unbearably suspenseful, Isaac's Storm is the story of what can happen when human arrogance meets the great uncontrollable force of nature.
this is by the same author as the devil in the white city. this book, while not as interesting as that other, does a good job of getting into why the loss of life from this hurricane was so bad. it's a combination of arrogance on the part of people thinking they could master the weather (they believed setting a forest on fire could bring rain), distrust in the observations of people in cuba (the head of the weather service thought they were a combo of spanish dramatics & ignorant natives) & building a city on a sandbar on the edge of the ocean. when i told my brother about the sand bar he was reminded of the bible quote; "....a foolish man who built his house on sand. the rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” (i looked it up, it's Matthew 7:24-27)
the book came out in 1999 and at the end talked about how people were becoming complacent in regards to hurricanes. some of that led to the great loss of life katrina hurricane in 2005. the book also mentioned a recent (in that time) study that said that if a hurricane hit the new york/new jersey area it could flood the subways & kill commuters. hurricane sandy in 2012 did flood the subways, but lucky they were already closed.
This entry was originally posted at https://archersangel.dreamwidth.org/314649.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
from goodreads;
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 in what remains the greatest natural disaster in American history--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. Riveting, powerful, and unbearably suspenseful, Isaac's Storm is the story of what can happen when human arrogance meets the great uncontrollable force of nature.
this is by the same author as the devil in the white city. this book, while not as interesting as that other, does a good job of getting into why the loss of life from this hurricane was so bad. it's a combination of arrogance on the part of people thinking they could master the weather (they believed setting a forest on fire could bring rain), distrust in the observations of people in cuba (the head of the weather service thought they were a combo of spanish dramatics & ignorant natives) & building a city on a sandbar on the edge of the ocean. when i told my brother about the sand bar he was reminded of the bible quote; "....a foolish man who built his house on sand. the rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” (i looked it up, it's Matthew 7:24-27)
the book came out in 1999 and at the end talked about how people were becoming complacent in regards to hurricanes. some of that led to the great loss of life katrina hurricane in 2005. the book also mentioned a recent (in that time) study that said that if a hurricane hit the new york/new jersey area it could flood the subways & kill commuters. hurricane sandy in 2012 did flood the subways, but lucky they were already closed.
This entry was originally posted at https://archersangel.dreamwidth.org/314649.html. Please comment there using OpenID.