Rating: 
Summary: Do You Watch the Weather Channel?
Review: If you do, then this book will be especially interesting to you as it often dissects the very meterological aspect of the title character. In an era where we rely so greatly on news video footage and dramatic movie interpretation, it is refreshing to indulge in a book that so thoroughly chornicles the real-life human drama of a not-so-distant American catastrophe.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not great...
Review: Many previous readers have already given in-depth reviews on the particulars of this book (history of weather forecasting, hurricanes, Galveston, etc.). What I found very lacking was the absence of photographs. After reading this book and then checking out some web sites that showed pictures of Galveston after the storm, I had no idea how bad the city looked after being ravaged by this terrible disaster. Larson himself mentions that the Galveston Library has over 4000 photographs pertaining to the storm. It would have increased the reader's appreciation of the storm to have included at least a few of them.
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Summary: Sweeping book on America's worst disaster
Review: In September of 1900, a major hurricane came ashore at Galveston, Texas. Thousands died, and it remains the worst natural disaster in US history. This book provides a broad, sweeping background to that event, the author seeing in what led up to it and what followed signs of the times as well as a simple historical reckoning.The Weather Bureau of the time was even more defensive than it is now, and with good reason: they weren't very good at forecasting the weather. Isaac Kline, their man in Galveston, was one of their best, and he even believed that his adopted city was topographically safe from such a disaster. Meanwhile, the Bureau stifled the native Cuban forecasters, who had many years of experience in predicting hurricanes. The result is almost an Aristotelian tragedy, as the hubris of Kline and his agency lead to disaster. Larson provides a background on numerous levels. The most straightforward one would be (and is) the Weather Bureau itself, which had just undergone a major reorganization and cleanup in response to massive corruption found in the local field offices. (One meteorologist filed all his observations for the week on Monday and took the rest of the week off; another turned his office into a photographic studio and took nude photographs of women; still others had to make his observations at the pawn shop because he'd hocked the equipment for gambling debts.) Now tightly controlled, the Bureau would be as good or as bad as the man in charge. Moore, however, is an autocratic leader who wants to centralize control and seems to see promising subordinates, like Kline, as rivals. Another background is on Kline himself, a disciplined, ambitious man, trained to the weather service and eager to make a name for himself. Given charge of the entire Texas region, he works hard to meet the demands of his job. Then there's Galveston, at the time an up-and-coming city, fighting with Houston for the privilege of being the major western port on the Gulf of Mexico while being one of the fastest-growing cities in the country between 1890 and 1900.
There are also the people of Galveston, and Larson picks out a few citizens, seemingly no one special, to describe in detail. Finally, there are hurricanes in general. Forming in the Atlantic or the Gulf from causes only roughly understood, they are among the most formidable forces in nature. Even today, as Larson relates, we do not understand why one tropical wave dissipates while another turns into Hurricane Andrew. The hurricane of 1900 in fact formed well out in the Atlantic, passing over Cuba on its way to the Gulf. The Weather Bureau confidently predicted that the storm would turn north and in fact issued warnings to North Atlantic fishermen of the approaching storm. Even when this error was realized, the storm was not considered to be significant. The Cuban weathermen, meanwhile, somehow recognized that this storm would be a major one, but, being natives, they were not listened to. (Even after the disaster, there were those at the Bureau who insisted that the Cuban storm and the Texas one were totally separate.) The stage is set for the disaster itself, which Larson relates in agonizing detail. He describes the ships at sea that encounter the storm, as well as Isaac himself walking along the beach and realizing that something is approaching. The winds blow, the waves rise, the sea comes to blanket Galveston as the townspeople first fight to save their property and then to save their lives. Eventually, the town is devastated and thousands are dead. Larson describes the spread of bodies and the horrifying cleanup afterwards. Though Isaac is chastened at that point, Moore at the Weather Bureau blithely takes credit for warning of the oncoming hurricane, even though the only warning authorized is for high winds. It's an extraordinarily gripping tale, all the more exciting because it's all true. Larson does an excellent job of telling the tale, perhaps only exceeding the mark when he puts thoughts in Isaac's head or seems to decide that everything he found out in his researches needs to be in the book. Included with the audiotape is an interview with the author, in which he talks about how he came up with the idea, how he went about his massive research, and how he found Isaac as the focus of the story. It makes for a very interesting addition to an extraordinary book. Highly recommended. (My review is based on an unabridged audio tape and possibly not the version currently available.)
Rating: 
Summary: Thrilling non-fiction nature adventure
Review: An almost lyrical description of the great Galveston hurricane of 1900. You don't have to be a Weather Channel junkie to enjoy this. A wonderful history of weather forecasting set against a backdrop of tragedy, bureaucracy, bad luck, dumb luck and nature's fury. At times a little confusing trying to trace all the hunan characters' movements (the storm itself is the protagonist), the book could've benefitted from a better map. Nevertheless the reader feels he/she knows the place and people. The outstanding visual image: housewives chopping holes in their floors trying to keep the storm surge floodwaters from sweeping away their homes. A real page-turner.
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Summary: Great read
Review: This is a very compelling book and progressively sucks you into its real-life drama. I've read alot of books on hurricanes, natural disasters and outdoor adventures and this is one of the best in my opinion. Larson does a good job of showing how the National Weather Bureau worked in a pre-Doppler age and how one man's choices could have dire effects on how people responded to a storm. I am reminded of the Hurricane of '38 when people perished on islands only a stone's throw away from the Connecticut shore. It's inconceivable to us that so many people could be caught unaware in this day and age with today's technology but there still remains a certain psyche of "weather denial" that existed in 1900. The book becomes even more gripping as the waters rise to 2nd floors of homes and people struggle against the currents rushing through the streets in complete blackness, no less. Larson also is thorough about the aftermath and the horrific aspect of many floating bodies to contend with, as morbid as it sounds, he paints a vivid picture. It all makes me wish I had studied metereology!
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Summary: Engrossing!
Review: This was a book that I could not put down. The author brings you to a place and time where they didn't have the capability to predict storms. I learned some very interesting facts about hurricanes and the damage they can do. I certainly have more respect for them and their enormous ability to be so destructive. The author was so descriptive of the storm that you actually felt like you were witnessing the devastation first hand. Very well written. Enjoyed it immensely. I would reccommend this book highly.
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Summary: a gripping story of disasters and ideas
Review: This book chronicles two things: the hurricane that destroyed Galveston and Isaac Cline's underestimation of that storm. It skillfully weaves together one of the worst disasters in American history with a light, gripping story of why that disaster hit the island unprepared. Part history, part detective story, this book illustrates the importance of ideas and science in preserving human life. It also has a wealth of well-researched human detail that makes the storm and its terrible rage come alive. Do you have a friend who watches the Weather Channel obsessively? This is the perfect book for them... it shows how sexy weather forecasting can be!!!
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Summary: Powerful emotional read.
Review: I have such mixed reactions to this book; it's difficult to verbalize them.
Isaac's Storm is a powerful human story, one that leaves an imprint of death and sadness on the reader long after finishing the book. We can imagine what it must have been like for Isaac, who must have felt partially responsible for the loss of so many lives (including his wife and daughter). I could also vividly imagine what it must have felt like to watch the walls of the house breath with pounding water, and the desperate attempts to save family from the onslaught of wind, water, and debris. On the other hand, I was bothered by what seemed a bit of fictionalization. I was left to wonder whether Isaac and his brother, Joseph, were truly rivals or if the author expanded on that aspect of their relationship in order to make the book more interesting. Joseph seemed to take a back seat to his brother's importance, although it was Joseph who more accurately sensed the impending danger. It was Joseph who loved his brother enough to stay with him throughout the storm and even rescue his children. I also had a difficult time getting excited about the first half of the book. This may be due to circumstance: I read the first half in 15-30 minute spurts on lunch breaks. Or it may be because of the context changes from chapter to chapter s in the first half (from Galveston to the history of the Weather Bureau). The last half of the book, read in one sitting, was much more interesting-but it also focused on a single timeline, leading us from the heart of the storm and the devastation that followed, into the final years of both Joseph and Isaac. I'd recommend this book, but not as your first introduction to "historical" fictionalized non-fiction (if that made any sense at all).
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Summary: We've come so far - or have we?
Review: Isaac Cline was in many ways the right man at the wrong place at the wrong time. His story is not just about the great Galveston Hurricane a century ago. It's about the birth of the weather service. Now we take the weather service and predictions for granted (and often revile them for mistakes) but this book shows how imporant information is for building the big picture. Conflicts with Caribbean stations politically come into play and tanish what should by all rights be an apolitical operation. You are taken into Galveston and almost can see the city and the people there. While we have seen disasters and storms on television, the book gives you an almost "you are there" quality as you see it unfold, bringing death and destruction in the path and forever changing an American city. Yet for all the subtext of "they didn't see what was gunning for them" are we really much better off 100 years later? We still can't fully predict where storms will come ashore, relying on best guesses. At least we can warn those in the potential path, and prevent devistation on this scale again, but we really are not much further along in knowing what's going to happen beyond now.
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Summary: GALVESTON'S STORM
Review: Telling the story of The Great 1900 Galveston Hurricane through the central character of U.S. Weather Bureau Officer Isaac Cline doesn't really work. Author Erik Larson forces much drama into the story, concocting a rivalry between true-life weathermen who are also brothers. The Cain and Abel angle seems a slight supposition of facts and doesn't play well against the monster hurricane that socked Galveston, Texas in 1900 killing nearly 6,000 people. What "Isaac's Storm" does accomplish is a fascinating history of The United States Weather Bureau. It's shaky beginning of bureaucratic bungling, public mistrust, and reliance on meteorological inaccuracy makes for page-turning reading. The hurricane itself is told in exciting descriptive prose but Isaac's participation, or lack of, best remains rested in peace.
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