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Paul Lester

"Massive buildings were crushed like egg shells, great timbers were carried through the air as though they were of no weight, and the winds and the waves swept everything before them until their appetite for destruction was satiated and their force spent." --From the foreword by Richard Spillane, editor of the Galveston Tribune

The many personal tragedies and triumphs come to light in this full and thrilling account that is made even more evocative and jolting by its profusion of photographs taken immediately after the disaster. 

In the storm, S. W. Clinton lost his wife and six children, including two sons he could not save from drowning before his very eyes. Yet others survived. Long engaged, Ernest A. Mayo and Bessie Roberts decided it was better to face the daunting tasks ahead of them together, and were married a mere five days after the flood. Their stories, and the stories of all who survived the great Galveston Hurricane of 1900, attest to humanity's ability to overcome even the most horrific of disasters.

Pelican Publishing

Hurricane Series

The Great Galveston Disaster

Isaac Monroe Cline

More than six thousand souls perished in the September 8, 1900, hurricane that devastated the island town of Galveston, Texas. Men and women, rich and poor, black and white struggled alike in what was to that date the worst natural disaster in American history. Many more would have lost their lives, however, if it wasn't for the efforts of Dr. Issac Monroe Cline, section director at the Weather Bureau Headquarters. It was Cline who decided to raise the flags over the Weather Bureau, signaling an impending hurricane. He also spoke to large crowds of people in low-lying areas of the island, correctly predicting the unexpected force and direction of the storm.

This detailed autobiography, originally penned by Cline in 1945, chronicles his life and education before and after the deadly events at Galveston. It is a complete picture of him not just as a weather forecaster, but also as a small boy, a student, a survivor, and a meteorological scholar. It is supplemented with antique photographs and information from his textbook Characteristics of Tropical Cyclones.

More than one hundred years after the hurricane that would forever mark his career, Cline is still revered as a pioneer in his field. His work charting hurricanes, measuring their direction, speed, and precipitation, helped build the foundations for modern meteorology. Storms, Floods and Sunshine preserves the science and emotion behind the man the Associated Press called "the smiling, genial, climatological genius."

Storms Floods and Sunshine: An Autobiography—Memoirs of the Great Galveston Hurricane Weather Forecaster