Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History, and: Galveston and the 1900 Storm: Castastrophe and Catalyst, and: Through a Night of Horrors: Voices from the 1900 Galveston Storm (Review)

Isaac's Story by Erik Larson (Vintage Books, 2000).

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Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History, and: Galveston and the 1900 Storm: Castastrophe and Catalyst, and: Through a Night of Horrors: Voices from the 1900 Galveston Storm (Review)

by Jay Barnes
Southern Cultures, Vol. 7, No. 4: Winter 2001

Vintage Books, 2000; University of Texas Press, 2000; Texas A&M University Press, 2000

For centuries, great earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and blizzards have left cars on the land and challenged the fortitude of the American people. A few of these disasters have achieved legendary status, while others remain relatively unknown. One whose story is now being retold stands apart from the rest, for it claimed more lives than the Johnstown Flood, the Chicago Fire, the San Francisco Earthquake, and the Great Mississippi Flood combined. In one wretched night of wind and water in September 1900, Galveston, Texas, endured a great hurricane that is still regarded as the deadliest natural disaster ever known to strike American soil.

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