Isaac's Storm

September 8, 1900, began innocently in the seaside town of Galveston, Texas. Even Isaac Cline, resident meteorologist for the U.S. Weather Bureau failed to grasp the true meaning of the strange deep-sea swells and peculiar winds that greeted the city that morning. Mere hours later, Galveston found itself submerged in a monster hurricane that completely destroyed the town and killed over six thousand people in what remains the greatest natural disaster in American history--and Isaac Cline found himself the victim of a devestating personal tragedy. Using Cline's own telegrams, letters, and reports, the testimony of scores of survivors, and our latest understanding of the science of hurricanes, Erik Larson builds a chronicle of one man's heroic struggle and fatal miscalculation in the face of a storm of unimaginable magnitude. Riveting, powerful, and unbearably suspenseful,Isaac's Stormis the story of what can happen when human arrogance meets the great uncontrollable force of nature.

Erik Larson, a contributor to <i>Time</i> magazine, is the author of <b>The Naked Consumer</b> and <b>Lethal Passage</b> (Crown, 1994). His work has appeared in <i>The Atlantic</i>, <i>Harper's</i>, and other national magazines. He lives in Seattle.