Hurricane Isaac landed in Galveston in September 1900 head on with a force estimated at 200 m.p.h. - winds and a storm surge estimated over 15 feet.
Isaac Monroe Cline was stationed by the U.S. Weather Bureau in Galveston where he and his brother, Joseph, put out daily reports. But the weather bureau had a bad reputation, Isaac and Joseph were the exception. Many of the Bureau's employees in other parts of the country were indifferent, one had pawned the equipment and conducted observations from the pawn shop, one made up reports in advance and gave them to someone to relay to the Weather's Bureau's office daily while he went fishing. One forecast in New York was for brisk winds but resulted in the Blizzard of 1888 with 21 inches of snow - 400 people died.To add to the problems, the U. S. Weather Bureau office in Cuba was battling with Cuba weathermen who were more accurate in their reports and had subsequently been banned from using telegraph to send their reports - news of an impending hurricane did not reach Galveston Island. This ended in disaster for those living in Galveston who were hit with a storm, without warning, that no one could have imagined. Eventually cut off from the mainland, over 8,000 people died in the Galveston Hurricane.
Having been to Galveston several times, I've seen the destruction of some of the more recent hurricanes, (there are plaques on many buildings showing the height the storm surges have reached) but Erik Larson gives us a view of the 1900 disaster from the point of view of the community and individual families in Isaac's Storm.A ship was pulled from its moorings and destroyed all three rail causeways, slates from roofs flew through the air killing people and severing limbs, one man noted seeing a baby grand piano in the crest of a wave and in St. Mary's Orphanage 10 nuns tied a clothes line around the smaller children attaching each group to a nun. This proved fatal as it tangled them in submerged wreckage. Over 90 children and 10 nuns died. Only three older boys who were not tethered survived. Many of those escaping the water and taking refuge in trees were killed by venomous snakes.
Few iconic buildings survived but Bishop's Palace and Ashton Villa remain.
Even after raising the whole town of Galveston and adding a sea wall, it is still susceptible to hurricanes.
