Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History

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At the dawn of the twentieth century, a great confidence suffused America. Isaac Cline was one of the era's new men, a scientist who believed he knew all there was to know about the motion of clouds and the behavior of storms. The idea that a hurricane could damage the city of Galveston, Texas, where he was based, was to him preposterous, "an absurd delusion." It was 1900, a year when America felt bigger and stronger than ever before. Nothing in nature could hobble the gleaming city of Galveston, then a magical place that seemed destined to become the New York of the Gulf.
That August, a strange, prolonged heat wave gripped the nation and killed scores of people in New York and Chicago. Odd things seemed to happen everywhere: A plague of crickets engulfed Waco. The Bering Glacier began to shrink. Rain fell on Galveston with greater intensity than anyone could remember. Far away, in Africa, immense thunderstorms blossomed over the city of Dakar, and great currents of wind converged. A wave of atmospheric turbulence slipped from the coast of western Africa. Most such waves faded quickly. This one did not.
In Cuba, America's overconfidence was made all too obvious by the Weather Bureau's obsession with controlling hurricane forecasts, even though Cuba's indigenous weathermen had pioneered hurricane science. As the bureau's forecasters assured the nation that all was calm in the Caribbean, Cuba's own weathermen fretted about ominous signs in the sky. A curious stillness gripped Antigua. Only a few unlucky sea captains discovered that the storm had achieved an intensity no man alive had ever experienced.
In Galveston, reassured by Cline's belief that no hurricane could seriously damage the city, there was celebration. Children played in the rising water. Hundreds of people gathered at the beach to marvel at the fantastically tall waves and gorgeous pink sky, until the surf began ripping the city's beloved beachfront apart. Within the next few hours Galveston would endure a hurricane that to this day remains the nation's deadliest natural disaster. In Galveston alone at least 6,000 people, possibly as many as 10,000, would lose their lives, a number far greater than the combined death toll of the Johnstown Flood and 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.
And Isaac Cline would experience his own unbearable loss.
Meticulously researched and vividly written, Isaac's Storm is based on Cline's own letters, telegrams, and reports, the testimony of scores of survivors, and our latest understanding of the hows and whys of great storms. Ultimately, however, it is the story of what can happen when human arrogance meets nature's last great uncontrollable force. As such, Isaac's Storm carries a warning for our time.
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ISBN:
9781428109681
9780593163559
9780307874092
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Grouping Information

Grouped Work ID84781263-6fb2-8128-1ce1-115215472e80
Grouping Titleisaacs storm a man a time and the deadliest hurricane in history
Grouping Authorerik larson
Grouping Categorybook
Grouping LanguageEnglish (eng)
Last Grouping Update2023-04-01 03:40:35AM
Last Indexed2023-04-01 04:05:56AM

Solr Fields

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Davidson, Richard M., 1940-
author
Larson, Erik
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Recorded Books, LLC,publisher
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Larson, Erik
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Martin Luther King Jr.
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MLK AV
display_description
At the dawn of the twentieth century, a great confidence suffused America. Isaac Cline was one of the era's new men, a scientist who believed he knew all there was to know about the motion of clouds and the behavior of storms. The idea that a hurricane could damage the city of Galveston, Texas, where he was based, was to him preposterous, "an absurd delusion." It was 1900, a year when America felt bigger and stronger than ever before. Nothing in nature could hobble the gleaming city of Galveston, then a magical place that seemed destined to become the New York of the Gulf.
That August, a strange, prolonged heat wave gripped the nation and killed scores of people in New York and Chicago. Odd things seemed to happen everywhere: A plague of crickets engulfed Waco. The Bering Glacier began to shrink. Rain fell on Galveston with greater intensity than anyone could remember. Far away, in Africa, immense thunderstorms blossomed over the city of Dakar, and great currents of wind converged. A wave of atmospheric turbulence slipped from the coast of western Africa. Most such waves faded quickly. This one did not.
In Cuba, America's overconfidence was made all too obvious by the Weather Bureau's obsession with controlling hurricane forecasts, even though Cuba's indigenous weathermen had pioneered hurricane science. As the bureau's forecasters assured the nation that all was calm in the Caribbean, Cuba's own weathermen fretted about ominous signs in the sky. A curious stillness gripped Antigua. Only a few unlucky sea captains discovered that the storm had achieved an intensity no man alive had ever experienced.
In Galveston, reassured by Cline's belief that no hurricane could seriously damage the city, there was celebration. Children played in the rising water. Hundreds of people gathered at the beach to marvel at the fantastically tall waves and gorgeous pink sky, until the surf began ripping the city's beloved beachfront apart. Within the next few hours Galveston would endure a hurricane that to this day remains the nation's deadliest natural disaster. In Galveston alone at least 6,000 people, possibly as many as 10,000, would lose their lives, a number far greater than the combined death toll of the Johnstown Flood and 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.
And Isaac Cline would experience his own unbearable loss.
Meticulously researched and vividly written, Isaac's Storm is based on Cline's own letters, telegrams, and reports, the testimony of scores of survivors, and our latest understanding of the hows and whys of great storms. Ultimately, however, it is the story of what can happen when human arrogance meets nature's last great uncontrollable force. As such, Isaac's Storm carries a warning for our time.
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Book on CD
eAudiobook
eBook
format_category_aurora
Audio Books
eBook
id
84781263-6fb2-8128-1ce1-115215472e80
isbn
9780307874092
9780593163559
9781428109681
itype_aurora
Audiobook CD
last_indexed
2023-04-01T10:05:56.601Z
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literary_form
Non Fiction
literary_form_full
Non Fiction
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COMPACT DISC 976.4139 Lar
owning_library_aurora
Aurora Public Library
owning_location_aurora
Martin Luther King Jr.
primary_isbn
9781428109681
publishDate
2000
2011
2020
publisher
Books on Tape
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Recorded Books
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
Audiobooks
Cline, Isaac Monroe, -- 1861-1955
Floods -- Texas -- Galveston -- History -- 20th century
Galveston (Tex.) -- Biography
Galveston (Tex.) -- History -- 20th century
Hurricanes -- Texas -- Galveston -- History -- 20th century
title_display
Isaac's Storm A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
title_full
Isaac's Storm A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
Isaac's storm : a man, a time, and the deadliest hurricane in history / by Erik Larson
title_short
Isaac's Storm
title_sub
A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
topic_facet
Cline, Isaac Monroe
Floods
History
Hurricanes
Nonfiction
Science

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