The New York of the Gulf
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Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow for the Mount Washington Observatory and this is The Weather Notebook. You might find it hard to believe that at the turn of the 20th century, Galveston, TX was poised to become one the biggest cities in America. That is, before the Galveston Hurricane hit on September 8th, 1900.

"Behind him, the bells of the Ursuline convent rang out to summon parishioners to mass. He climbed a mound of debris. The convent, three blocks north, was still standing, but now looked huge and strange, a feudal castle over a moor of broken wood." - Excerpt from Isaac's Storm NOAA Photo Collection

Author Erik Larson has written a book about the Galveston hurricane and he explains that Galveston was very different in 1900 than it is today:

"In 1900, it was a city on the move. Galveston was convinced that it was going to be the New York of the Gulf and in fact, was being called the New York of the Gulf."

Larson attributes this grand thinking to the American mindset in 1900, when, he says, people thought they knew everything about everything, including the weather:

"America was so confident in so many things. We were going to build the Panama Canal and do it in heartbeat where the French had failed over 20 years and I think somebody in that era wrote that there was no longer a need for a patent office because everything that would be invented had been. The kind of era when there were all those pronouncements. And therefore, one real fundamental mistake that everybody made was in believing that hurricanes had to behave in one way and one way only. And then came a storm that clearly did not."

Someone who thought hurricanes behaved in one way and therefore, could never damage Galveston, was a meteorologist by the name of Isaac Cline, and we'll learn more about him, tomorrow on The Weather Notebook when we continue our conversation with Erik Larson, author of "Isaac's Storm."

Support for The Weather Notebook is provided by Subaru and by the National Science Foundation.

 
Related Links

A Brief History of Galvseton

Questions and Answers with Erik Larson

Listen to a passage from the book.

 

Isaac's Storm A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History   "An absurd delusion," is how Isaac Cline, a dedicated and highly trained first-generation employee of the new U.S. Weather Bureau, characterized the fear that any hurricane posed a serious danger to the burgeoning city of Galveston, Texas. Based partly on Cline's expert opinion, Galveston dismissed a proposal to erect a seawall, claiming it a needless, wasteful expense. In 1900, Cline's words reflected not only his own opinion but also the spirit -- what would one day be seen as the hubris -- of his time.