Book review - "Isaac's Storm" by Erik Larsen

Today marks the anniversary of one of the deadliest and costliest hurricanes to hit the U.S.  A Category 4 slammed into Galveston in 1900 killing over 6000 people and destroying any chanced the city had of becoming a major player in Texas’ economy as a sea port and resort.

Erik Larsen wrote a fascinating non-fiction book, Isaac’s Storm, following Isaac Cline, the director of the Weather Bureau in Galveston.  He stitches together a minute-by-minute time line of the storm as it approached the island and then passed over the city.  Larsen chronicled several families as their situation deteriorated with the rising waters from reviewing hundreds of eyewitness accounts.  Some houses weathered the storm so well on the leeward side of the island, the people inside were shocked to see so many other buildings destroyed.

I’ve read Larsen’s book three times and used it for the basis of my Louisiana Psionic Officer series Scorpion Nest.  Every time I read Isaac’s Storm, I still find something new that I didn’t notice before.