by Erik Larson, 1999
Interesting account of the hurricane that struck and almost completely destroyed Galveston, Texas, on September 8, 1900. Told on the basis that the Weather Bureau made grave errors due to pride and ignorance, so Galveston had no warning of its impending doom. Isaac Cline was the Galveston Weather Station’s chief. Over 6000 people died, including Isaac’s wife.
The author assumes thoughts, sights, sounds, and smells as if he was there. It makes it very interesting and, as the storm hits, a page-turner, but I have a problem with him doing that because so much is speculation, not true history. In the “Notes,” he writes:
I have been absolutely Calvinistic about the bones of this story–dates, times, temperatures, wind speeds, identities, relationships, and so forth. Elsewhere, I used detective work and deduction to try to convey a vivid sense of what Isaac Cline saw, heard, smelled, and experienced in his journey toward and through the great hurricane of 1900.
Surprisingly, he included no pictures, only a map of Galveston as it was in 1900 with shaded areas showing what was destroyed, and another map with the path of the hurricane. Galveston was hoping to become the major port of Texas, but this hurricane and then 4 months later, the discovery of oil on January 10, 1901, at Spindletop, made Houston the major port because it was inland, safer, and closer to the railroad lines.
To me, what Galveston did after the devastation is miraculous. This is from an online article by the Texas State Historical Association:
Construction began on a six-mile-long seawall standing seventeen feet above mean low tide, and that protective barrier has been extended since then. Inside the city, sand pumped from the Gulf floor raised the grade as much as seventeen feet. This work required advance raising of 2,146 buildings and many streetcar tracks, fireplugs, and water pipes. Trees, shrubs, and flowers had to be removed if the owners wanted to save them. The largest building raised was a 3,000-ton church. It was boosted five feet off the ground with jacks, then fill was pumped underneath; church services were held on schedule.