True story is the dramatic account of the terrible hurricane that devastated the city of Galveston, Texas, in 1900. What we’re discovering is there more than ever before, especially in this period of climate change where natural disasters are linked. There are things that do not change, such as the arrogance of humans in the face of nature.
True story follows Galveston’s chief meteorologist Isaac Klein as a massive hurricane develops to the east in the Atlantic Ocean. The United States Bureau of Meteorology, the very modern weather service in the United States, downplays the alarming warning signs of the storm and even silences Cuban meteorologists, who, however, know about tropical storms. When the hurricane makes landfall in Galveston, there is surprise, then horror.
Erik Larsson drew on many historical sources to tell this story: reports, diaries, letters, telegrams, photographs. So he sets himself on ground level, his feet in the water, to describe the wind tearing boards from roofs, the rising water, the houses torn from their foundations, that collapse as the people inside try to find a way. Outside.
The victims have names, a past. But for many of them, there will be no future. The Galveston tragedy remains the deadliest natural disaster in US history.
The story is painful and horrific. Who will survive? In any state
Far from thrilling, Eric Larson’s story charts a history of meteorology and paints a picture of turn-of-the-century American society, optimistic to the point of being smug and confident in the omnipotence of science. However, meteorology was and remains very imperfect.
True story
Eric Larson
noon student
416 pages
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