Commentary On Isaac's Storm By Erik Larson

This is a narrative about the hurricane that hit Galveston, Texas in 1900. The perspective of this book is told by Isaac Cline, the senior U.S Weather Bureau official in Galveston at the time. Erik Larson points out the mistakes that led bureau officials to dismiss the warnings of the storm, as barometers drop Mr. Larson cinematically cuts from the eerie eye of the hurricane to the lunchroom moments before it surrenders to the arriving winds. Larson expertly captures the power the storm’s power and the catastrophic consequences of the unpredictable intersection of natural force and human choice. Unlike Mr. Larson’s other books this book does revolve around a famous murder, but instead focuses on the way things were run at the turn of the
Watkins a Historian from Montana State University. Professor Watkins said “Isaac’s Storm, Erik Larson's history of the Galveston hurricane of Sept. 8, 1900. It destroyed virtually the entire city and killed at least 4,263 people, according to a contemporary newspaper account, though some estimates put the death toll closer to 10,000. Either figure would qualify it as the most lethal hurricane this country has ever known. The truth is "Isaac's Storm" doesn't need the modern shadow of impending doom to deserve our attention. The author, a contributing editor of Time magazine, has produced a riveting, deeply researched narrative that is driven by a prose style of descriptive elegance and power. The result is an authoritative history given the gloss of high journalism, and the sense of immediacy such a combination produces is at times breathtaking, particularly when Larson chronicles the hour-by-hour progress of the hurricane as its extraordinary storm surge (15 feet, by some estimates) and winds (which may have gusted to 200 miles an hour) systematically ripped "The New York of the Gulf" to Flinders.” Professor Watkins overall thinks highly of this book and gave it all good