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At the turn of the century (1900), a detrimental hurricane hit Galveston, Texas. Galveston was experiencing a period of substantial growth and success, after hurricane hit, the city was devastated.
As we discussed in class last week about the effectiveness of a narrative history story, Isaac’s Storm can be categorized as such because the book its self is neither history or science but a combination of the two. Most of the book is an account given by Cline himself, as well as descriptions by survivors of the hurricane. The impact that not putting citations within in the text but at the end is effective because it keeps the flow of the novel. This novel allows the reader to envision what it would be like to live through a category 5 hurricane, Larson is able to show the reader the trust that the public placed in upper level officials, and weather technology and how we still do this today. After reading this novel it made me realize the truth how reliant I am on technology. At night I will check weather.com to see what the upcoming forecast looks like and plan accordingly. I know that I am one of millions who rely on today’s technology, be it on the phone or the computer. The irony of this, for example, in New York the amount of times the “weathermen” have predicted a snowstorm that will produce ten inches of snow, however, the next morning when you get up it has only snowed a few inches and the sun is shining (even though the night before people were in hysterics). But every time it seems to go the same. However, as my waryness of techonolgy holds the is the old saying, “better safe then sorry”.
This very idea goes along with what people could have been feeling in Gaveston, Texas. Peoples trust or distrust with the idea of a meteorologist has ultimately impacted their lives. Ignorance is something that caused hundreds and maybe even thousands their lives. The idea of religion and how it effected the preparedness and thoughts of people during this period. Similar to the mention in AJ’s post that meteorology as a science was still seen as controversial, most people still believed that the weather was God’s own will and therefore should not be forecasted. So how does one prepare for what they deem to be enviable?
Similar to the other posts and addressing the central question of how the Galveston hurricane shaped American ideas about disaster preparedness, I found that while reading this novel what came to mind was a quote originally said by John Wooden, “failing to prepare is preparing to fail”. This quote can be applied to most of the disasters we have studied thus far. It holds true in the essence that because of the lack of preparation whether in Galveston, Texas or Chicago, for a large scale natural disaster can cost the lives of many and the overall destruction of a city’s infrastructure.