The best book on the storn is “Isaac’s Storm”. Lots of first person accounts
Good Morning! On this day in 1900, a powerful hurricane devastated Galveston, killing at least 6,000 people. It remains the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history.
Great book. As fate would have it, I just finished reading two others ahead of this anniversary.
Have you read The Storm of the Century by Al Roker? Our nationwide weatherman knows his topic. His prowess is on full display with explanations of weather events and the origins of most hurricanes which wind up over here. Sometimes Florida does the rest of us the favor of slowing them down, but as often as not, they cruise past the peninsula after shoving around some islands on their way into the Gulf of Mexico.
In addition, Roker also covers the history of forecasting in the US, from its early days under the direction of the US Army Signal Corps to the US Department of Agriculture. Arrogance in the national office hampers full reporting as the deadly storm enters the Gulf of Mexico. Forecasters in Cuba aided by two Jesuit priests with up-to-date instruments sound the alarm, but nobody in Galveston knows about it. The chief of the Weather Bureau, Willis Luther Moore, dismisses the mere idea that a hurricane can travel across the gulf. Isaac Cline himself advised against an early proposition of building a seawall proposed years before. Cline also believed that the back bay areas would absorb flood waters.
There’s also Death from the Sea by Herbert Mason. This was much better than I had anticipated with descriptive passages and references to places and people I grew up hearing about as a B.O.I.
A Weekend in September by John Edward Weems still carries a lot of weight. And lest I forget, there’s also Storms, Floods and Sunshine by the meteorologist on the scene himself, Isaac Cline. Might be kind of hard to find now, but if you’re as devoted to local history as I am, you’ll find one.
There have been a couple of great books on that storm. The statue on the beach is very moving after you’ve read either.
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