Isaac's Storm
Erik Larson
There seems to be a fad for writing and reading disaster stories, and here is another one. It is the story of the Galveston, Texas, hurricane of September 1900. Of course the understanding and prediction of hurricanes was not well developed in those days, but it also is the story of not only ignorance, but prejudice, stupidity, and jealousy on the part of those in charge of the weather bureau.
Because the weather bureau was frequently embarrassed by wrong predictions, especially when they predicted storms, those who predicted weather were forbidden to use the word hurricane until they were in the middle of one. Higher ups in the Bureau were positive that the Cubans, even though they had much experience with hurricanes, were unknowledgeable children and their forecasts were not to be believed. But the real story is of Isaac Cline, the head of the Galveston Office of the Weather Bureau and the Galveston Hurricane and what it did to the city and those who lived in it. Isaac did not predict the terribly damaging storm, but the storm did not act in a way that gave dire warnings (for example, as the storm approached, the barometric pressure rose).
The book left me with the feeling that one should NEVER take the threat of a hurricane lightly. The descriptions of what happened in Galveston are vivid and astounding.