Amazingly, I just started re-reading "Isaac's Storm" last week...

[Richardo]

...and now 108 years later, almost to the day, we're getting another hurricane coming ashore at Galveston.

For those of you who haven't read it, I recommend it highly. Many people outside of Texas don't know that the 1900 hurricane killed an estimated 8,000 people and is still the worst natural disaster in US history. Erik Larson writes a compelling history.

[villager]

1. On the fiction side, there's Joe Lansdale's "The Big Blow:"

http://www.amazon.com/Big-Blow-Joe-R-Lansdale/dp/1892284987

But yes, it remains one of the more obscure major natural disasters in U.S. history...

[Richardo]

2. Cool - that's a new one on me.

:thumbsup: Thanks!

[saltpoint]

3. Richardo, I agree. It is a terrific read. And you are

exactly right -- Ike is aping that 1900 storm.

Even Ike's track is eerily the same. Note also Larson's research on the earthquake nearabouts the hurricane -- just as we've had earthquakes in Indonesian and Japan this week...

I hope many DUers will give Larson's book a try.

Great post.

Recommended.

[Sabriel]

4. It's a horrifying story

I had nightmares after reading it. At several points, I had to put it down and couldn't go on.

Highly recommended.

[Captain Hilts]

5. That one, the '33 that hit the FL Keys, Camille and the Hurricane of '38

were the biggies.

In '33, all those CCC/WPA workers swelled the Keys' population and couldn't get out.

[saltpoint]

6. Kick.

[Captain Hilts]

7. And, again, this Mookie fan LOVES your avatar. nt

[Richardo]

8. Thanks Mookie...

BTW, on Friday evening I saw the 'brick red sunset' that Larsen describes as the harbinger of a hurricane. Chilling.

[Sequoia]

9. One of the best and scariest I've read.

That huge wall of debri creeping and crushing everything in its path was horrifying. People choping up their floors with axes. Issac finding his wife in the much with her hand sticking out and him seeing the wedding band.

[Richardo]

10. And then to see that it is her wedding band on his finger in the cover photo.

Wow.

[Sequoia]

11. I didn't even notice that.