"Isaac's Storm" by Erik Larson and "Sudden Sea" by R.A. Scotti

[Ed Augusts]

"ISAAC'S STORM : A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in
History" by Erik Larson. Vintace/Random House, New York, 1999. Reprint
edition. Softcover. 323 pgs. incl. index.

reviewed together with

"SUDDEN SEA : The Great Hurricane of 1938" by R.A. Scotti. Back
Bay / Little, Brown. Boston. 2003. First Edition. Softcover. 280 pgs,
incl. index, + 10 pg. "Readers Guide" and "Questions and Topics for
Discussion". [see " * * * * * " below!]


MORE THAN ENOUGH EXCITEMENT AND DANGER!

The romance of the weather... the sudden and secret movements of
storms... "Red Sky at Morning, Sailor Take Warning!"... the excitement
of sudden changes in wind and tide, of being in a boat or on a beach
suddenly caught in the grip of a killer storm, and the mounting
scientific discoveries, over generations, of more and more facts about
what used to be called "The LAW OF STORMS", are palpable in both
these fine books. The hardest thing for me to do is say which of them
is better, because they are both WONDERFUL READS!

First, let's consider "ISAAC'S STORM", one of the most popular titles
of the past decade, truly a national bestseller. I saw the author on
Book TV on C-SPAN II some years ago, discussing his work. And all of
it is true, as true as the evidence which can be gathered, sifted,
with some few things surmised, and it all rings true, from cover to
cover. The author uses wonderful effects throughout, moves forward and
back, in and out, on as many levels as "Map Quest" when you're
searching a city, on-line, for an address. Any budding author of non-
fiction should study this book intently!

But the major theme that emerges in this tempestuous epic, is the
enigma hovering over the mindset, the thoughts, and inner nature, of
Isaac Cline, scientist representing the U.S. Weather Bureau in
Galveston, in charge of Galveston's weather office. We see him from an
early age, learning, observing, experiencing more than his share of
freakish weather in the dozen years leading up to his taking the post
in Galveston. At one point, at a minor post on the Great Plains, he
scurries out of the way of a 20- to 30-foot wall of icy water which
suddenly appears out of nowhere... He watches a carriage or stagecoach
with two sisters inside get swept downstream to certain death, and
learns 10 days later that a huge hail storm up the river quickly
melted and turned to icy water, THAT is what thundered 30, 40 miles
downstream and not only sent up a wall of water, but froze the fish in
the river as it poured along. That was just one of his rude
discoveries about the power of nature. Unless he was exaggerating!
By the end of the book we wonder if perhaps he didn't add some vivid
embellishments to his wild experiences. Another, and more to the
point, was sailing through a hurricane on the Gulf of Mexico and
surviving! These kinds of events must have tempered him about the
ravages of nature and prepared him to be cool as a cucumber when one
of the greatest storms of all time arrived. He knew the power of a
hurricane, but he did not think it possible that such a storm could
ever hit Galveston, Texas. Wow, was he wrong!

"ISAAC'S STORM" doesn't quite answer all the questions that pop-up
regarding our 'hero' or perhaps 'anti-hero'. We are unsure for most
of the book if we even like him or not, he has his good points,
certainly, we start feeling comfortable about him, even with his proud
ways and high opinion of himself, but by the last few chapters it is
obvious that he had much to answer for in what he did and what he
didn't do as one of the most powerful hurricanes on record swept into
Galveston with shocking and lethal results for many thousands, while,
that very morning, he stood on the shore and watched the waves get
bigger and bigger.

Why didn't he transfer his family to the 4th Floor of the Levy
Building where his weather office was? Why did he go about,
reassuring people to stay in their homes, and not fear the flood-tide
and its rising waters that would soon be splashing against their front
doors, and an hour later, their second-story windows? He ought to
have felt in his bones that a tragedy was at hand, and yet did very,
very little. In fact, it seems certain that he lied about what he did
do. He said, after that storm, that he had saved some 6,000 visitors
by warning them to get out of town, and away from the beach, but
evidence from all other accounts contradicts him and indicates that,
in fact, he did nothing. He did one other strange thing. Having
rescued a diamond ring from the drowned love-of-his-life, he enlarged
the ring and wore it himself. The cover photo, in fact, shows him
with the ring on his little finger. I don't know how many of us could
suffer a loss like that, then wear the ring our spouse wore in life,
and which we recovered from her mouldering body a week later. But
maybe that's "just me!" feeling a bit queasy about such a
demonstration of... love!

Isaac Cline is like any man who is discovered to be grossly imperfect,
even when he has all the best intentions and is armed with all the
best knowledge of the day about hurricanes, but in this imperfection,
even in what turns out to be his lies, lies for which he was never
caught, never made to atone for, he was no worse by any means than the
U.S. Weather Bureau's men in Cuba and Washington, officials who were
totally blind as well as stubborn, and who clung to all the WRONG
assumptions about how good they were, and how the Cubans, who had been
following and predicting hurricanes for many decades, did not deserve
to even be listened to about what course a Caribbean hurricane would
follow.

One terrible failing of this book has nothing, I believe, to do with
Erik Larson the author, but with whoever edited this book. The map of
Galveston, one of two maps which follow the Table of Content,s does
not show more than about half the places mentioned in the book. Sites
of various private and public buildings, churches, etc., are numbered
and shown, but about half of them aren't mentioned in the book at all,
whereas many city locations mentioned in the narrative don't appear on
the map, either. Most importantly, the 4-story Levy Building, site of
Isaac's Weather Bureau office, is not shown. St. Mary's Orphanage,
with 93 children and 10 nuns inside, mentioned as "3 miles down the
beach" is not shown either. The cross-hatched portion of the city
where total destruction occurred as well as the lightly-hatched
"partial destruction" don't match the descriptions of the damage to
individual buildings. The 2 or 3 blocks along the entire beachfront
of "present water encroachment" is never shown. The bathing houses,
the "Midway, a ten block stretch along the beach", is not shown
either, nor is the lethal mile-long railroad trestle which floated
half-way across town in one piece, smashing houses as it went, is not
shown. What a shame that someone at Vintage / Random House couldn't
have spent a hundred bucks to have someone draw a map that showed more
of Galveston's cityscape, including the very important railroad lines
running into town. Not even the train station, a crucial feature,
appears on the map. Maybe they can spiff-up a future edition with
better maps!

One other thing... "Isacc's Storm" has NO PHOTOS, not a one, except
what's on the cover, and that's just Isaac Cline. In one way this
causes the reader to imagine things more vividly. Publishing the
awful photos of vast destruction as well as dead bodies, rows and
piles of dead bodiesm, might or might not be a good thing to have
done! The dead bodies are there by the end of the book, but we have
imagined them as they were described to us, even if we didn't see the
photos! Maybe that's WORSE than seeing the photos!

* * * * *

Rhode Island author R.A. Scotti , who has also written under a pen-
name, Angelica Scott, shows tremendous prowess and verve with her very
well-researched "SUDDEN SEA : The Great Hurricane of 1938". The title
and subtitle don't mention that NEW ENGLAND was the target for this
Depression-era hurricane, which stormed up the East Coast, rushing
between high pressure areas like a thousand freight trains, staying
far enough offshore to totally fool the U.S. Weather Bureau's men into
thinking it had gone off toward Bermuda instead of due north from the
waters off eastern Florida. Much to the chagrin of the Weather
Bureau, who should have been faster and better in 1938 than they had
been in 1900 when Galveston was wrecked by "Isaac's Storm", but
weren't... the sudden arrival of the hurricane surprised Long Island,
then Connecticut and Rhode Island, as well as Massachusetts residents,
vacationers, sailors, and school children, with the biggest "BLOW" of
at least the past 120 years, and maybe since the area was settled by
European settlers. Even New York City was damaged. Not the least
problem was tha literally millions of trees, including historic oaks
from Colonial days, were blown-over by the hurricane winds.

The passage about Katherine Hepburn, who had enjoyed a brisk swim in
Long Island Sound,just minutes before the effects of the hurricane
arrived, and her family, just barely managing to escape the rising
waters.... another scene, of an entire family that seemed as doomed to
drown as all the other families on their beach, but who were blown
across the bay to Connecticut... the last moments of dozens of
residents and visitors that just couldn't believe the sea could rise
up 20, 30 feet above the high tide line... as well as the dramatic
episode of the pathetic young victims, and would-be rescuers, of a
school bus tragedy... show me that this book is absolutely just as
well-researched and well-written as the much more famous title by Erik
Larson. What it does not have is one central character and one main
place. But I'm not sure if the emphasis on Isaac Cline, calling the
Hurricane of 1900 "Isaac's Storm" is really fair. It really was NOT
his storm, he was just one of a cast of thousands, and an ambiguous
and difficult character, at that!

Here again, there is something not quite right about the maps! The
First Paperback edition which I read, printed in 2003, has a
"Jamestown, Rhode Island" map on the page before Chapter One, the
"Napatree-Watch Hill 'Before Hurricane'" map on page 17, "Southern
New England" on pg. 138, but the "Napatree-Watch Hill 'Before
Hurricane' map is REPEATED on page 148, then the "Jamestown, Rhode
Island" map is also REPEATED, on page 172. Thankfully, there is a
"Napatree-Watch Hill 'After Hurricane' on pg. 193. It seems as if at
one time whoever edited this book may have intended to include another
"AFTER" map, perhaps for Jamestown, Rhode Island. A map of downtown
Providence showing its proximity to water would also have been a fine
thing to include, but these do not appear in the First Edition.
Hopefully, this may have been corrected, or may still be corrected, in
a future edition.

Ms. Scotti's book, unlike "Isaac's Storm", DOES HAVE a section of
photos... 46 photos of 16 pages! They help bring to life what would
otherwise have to be imagined. It is especially nice to see the
smiling photos, not of those who perished, but those who survived!
YES, there are many more photos here of the living than there are of
the dead!

Best, ----Ed

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