ISAAC's STORM

ISAAC’S STORM
Erik Larson
January 2005
Rating 8/10
Non-fiction
© 1999
# pages 336
From personal TBR pile
Reason for reading book: Am fascinated by stories about storms
Blurb: I’ve had this one in my TBR stack for several years now, and have even started to read it a couple of times. Whey it “took” better this time than the others I don’t know, but I do know that I couldn’t put it town. In a detailed account, Larson tells the story of the devastating Galveston hurricane of 1900 complete with details of the history of the forecasting of storms (did you know that for a time forecasters were forbidden to use the word “tornado” when forecasting a severe storm for fear of panicking people?), the ineptness of the system, the arrogance of forecasters, and the politics that came into play. Interwoven with the history of hurricanes, and this hurricane in particular, Larson recounts the tragic stories of victims and survivors. In light of the recent devastating tsunami in south Asia, the book becomes of even more interest. There have been a lot of stories about natural disasters, but few have made bestseller status as this one has, and it justly deserved its place on the bestseller lists. If you haven’t read this book yet, what are you waiting for? Erik Larson really knows how to hold the reader in his grip. Very much worth reading.