Isaac's Storm (56 page)

256.
"M
is,"she
wrote:
Barton.
Letter,
Clara
Barton
to
"the
Public,"
Oct.
6,1900.

257.
Toward
evening:
Weems,
146.
Weems
states
the
crew
found
Cora's
body
shortly
after
nightfall,
indicating
the
crew
had
begun
working
in
that
area
some
time
earlier.

257.
"Even
in
death
":
Cline,
"Cyclones,"
15.

258.
The
body
was
transported:
Lakeview
Cemetery
Record.
Vol.
1.1992.
Rosenberg
Library.

258.
Isaac
kept
the
ring:
Isaac
nowhere
states
this.
It
is
conjecture,
purely,
but
I
base
it
on
a
number
of
things,
particularly:
Isaac's
essentially
romantic
character;
his
devotion
to
Cora;
his
deep
knowledge
of
portraiture
and
the
symbolic
messages
embedded
within
by
their
painters;
the
fact
he
wears
a
diamond
in
Whitesell's
photographic
portrait
(see
note
for
page
4,
A
New
Orleans
photographer);
and
Whitesell's
obvious
effort
to
light
the
ring
and
Isaac's
eyes
so
that
both
gleam
from
the
darkness.
258.
That
night:
West.
Chronology.

PART
VI:
HAUNTED

Isaac:
Haunted

263.
On
Monday,
September
10,
Willis
Moore:
National
Archives:
General
Correspondence.
Telegram,
Sept.
10,1900,
Willis
L.
Moore
to
City
Editor,
Evening
World.
The
initials
H.
C.
F.
beneath
Moore's
name
suggest
that
the
content
of
the
telegram,
perhaps
the
telegram
itself,
actually
came
from
H.
C.
Frankenfield,
one
of
the
bureau's
senior
scientists.
I
cite
Frankenfield's
reminiscence
about
weather
school
in
a
note
for
page
33
("You
will
cheerfully'').

263.
It
rapidly
regained
power:
National
Archives:
General
Correspondence.
See
exchange
of
letters,
beginning
Sept.
13,
1900,
A.
I.
Root
to
U.S.
Weather
Bureau.
Box
1476.

263.
The
Central
Office:
Ibid.,
Sept.
28,1900.

263. It
killed
six
loggers:
"Six
Drowned
in
Wisconsin."
Untitled
dispatch
in
Rosen

berg
Library.
Storm
of
1900
Collection.
Subject
File.
News
Clippings.
The
item

is
dated
Sept.
15,1900.

264. Manhattan,
half
a
continent:
Fernandez-Partagas,
105,
note
63.

264.
The
storm
sank:
Ibid.,
106,
notes
66-71.

264.
The
city
conducted:
Mart
H.
Royston
Papers.
Oct.
9,1900.
Rosenberg
Library.
Manuscript
Collection.
25-0587.

264.
Early
in
1901:
McComb,
122.

265.
"Many
people":
Personal
Accounts:
Cortes,
6

265.
They
created:
World's
Fair
Bulletin,
April
1904,
24-30.
Rosenberg
Library.

76-0004.
265.
It
rose
seventeen
feet:
Personal
Accounts:
Stuart,
78.
265.
McClure's
Magazine
called
it:
Turner,
George,
615.
265.
They
raised
the
altitude:
Cartwright,
Galveston,
29.
265.
The
city
built:
Ibid.,
29.

265.
To
signal
the
city's
faith:
Ibid.,
5.

266.
"We
have
got
down
":
"Chicago,"
686.

266.
Just
four
months
later:
Kane,
171-73.

267.
Soon
after
the
storm:
National
Archives:
Letters
Sent.
Letter,
Willis
Moore
to
secretary
of
agriculture,
Oct.
9,1900.

267.
On
November
3,
1900:
National
Archives:
General
Correspondence.
Letter,
I.
M.
Cline
to
chief
of
Weather
Bureau,
Nov.
3,1900.

267.
"I
believe
that
I
have":
National
Archives:
General
Correspondence.
LetterJ.
L.
Cline
to
chief
of
Weadier
Bureau,
Dec.
4,1900.

267.
By
then,
however:
National
Archives:
Letters
Sent.
Letter,
Willis
Moore
to
secretary
of
agriculture,
April
5,1901.

267.
Two
weeks
later:
National
Archives:
Letters
Sent.
Letter,
Willis
Moore
to
secretary
of
agriculture,
April
20,1901.

268.
In
1909:
Whitnah,
122.

268.
"When
a
station
official":
Cline,
Storms,
140.

269.
"The
object":
Ibid.,
141.

269.
Isaac's
disillusionment.:
Ibid.,
141
-46.
269.
At
nine
o
'clock:
Ibid.,
146.

269. The
clearest
evidence:
National
Archives.
Letter,
March
30,
1922,
Joseph
L.

Cline
to
Henry
E.
Williams.
Reminiscences
of
Employees.
Other
Records,

1878-1924.
Box
1.

2
70.
He
gave
up
the
study:
Cline,
"Century,"
37.

270.
In
his
monograph:
Ibid.,
37.

271.
In
September
1909:
Monthly
Weather
Review.
Sept.
1909,625.
271.
On
the
morning
of:
First
Baptist
Church,
8.

271.
A
month
later:
Ibid.,
8.

271.
He
divided
his
annual
leave:
Cline,
Storms,
127.

271.
He
collected:
Ibid.,170.

272.
"Time
lost
can
never
be
recovered":
Ibid.,
248.
272.
Isaac
Monroe
Cline:
Weems,
164.

272.
"Galveston
should
take
heart":
National
Archives:
General
Correspondence.

Telegram,
Willis
Moore
to
Chicago
Tribune,
Sept.
13,1900.
272.
The
seawall
held:
McComb,
149.
272.
The
death
toll:
Author's
conversations
with
Hugh
Willoughby,
Chris
Landsea,

Jerry
Jarrell,
Bill
Gray,
and
others.
See
note
on
pages
279-80,
at
"The
Storm:

Somewhere
a
Butterfly."

272.
None
believed:
Author's
conversations,
as
in
preceding
note
for
page
272.

273.
There
was
talk:
See
Emanuel,
"Dependence,"
"Hypercanes,"
and
"Toward."
273.
The
Army
Corps
of
Engineers:
See
U.S.
Army
Corps
of
Engineers.
Interim
Technical
Data
Report.
Metro
New
York
Hurricane
Transportation
Study.
November
1995.

273.
But
in
the
narrow:
Author's
observations.

273.
Once,
in
a
time
long
past:
A
small
marker
noting
the
orphanage
disaster
stands
at
the
seaward
rim
of
the
seawall,
opposite
the
Wal-Mart.

NO
BOOK
CAN
be
written
without
the
help
of
legions
of
good
souls
who
donate
their
time
and
energy
to
the
author's
cause.
I
wish
first
to
thank
my
wife,
Christine
Gleason,
a
natural
editor
who
happens
also
to
be
a
brilliant
physician.
Her
repeated
readings
of
the
manuscript
and
her
observations
were
invaluable,
even
the
occasional
Zzzzzzs
she
wrote
in
the
margins
to
note
places
where
the
story
dragged.
My
daughters,
Kris-ten,
Lauren,
and
Erin,
showed
unusual
patience
in
tolerating
their
father's
predawn
disappearances
into
his
office
and
his
mysterious
ban
on
nonessential
use
of
his
computer,
a
prohibition
based
entirely
on
his
neurotic
fear
that
something
catastrophic
might
befall
his
manuscript.

My
agent,
David
Black,
is
that
rarest
of
agents
who
insists
that
a
book
proposal
be
just
exactly
right,
even
in
the
face
of
death
threats
from
his
authors.
He
is
an
excellent
human
being
with
an
unerring
eye
for
story.
My
editor,
Betty
Prashker,
was
as
always
a
cheerfully
assertive
voice,
prodding
me
gently
for
the
manuscript
and,
later,
recommending
with
equal
grace
that
parts
of
it
be
destroyed
and
never
seen
by
any
other
human
reader.

The
observations
of
friends
who
read
all
or
parts
of
the
manuscript
were
invaluable.
Thanks,
then,
to
Robin
Marantz-Henig,
who
read
the
entire
thing
and
gave
me
a
detailed
structural
and
stylistic
critique,
and
to
Alex
Kodowitz
and
Carrie
Dolan,
whose
encouragement
helped
me
survive
those
dark
early
days
when
the
writing
first
got
under
way.
I
owe
a
special
debt
to
Hugh
E.
Willoughby,
director
of
the
Hurricane
Research
Division
of
NOAA's
Atlantic
Oceanographic
and
Meteorological
Laboratory,
Virginia
Key,
Florida,
who
showed
himself
to
be
a
deft
critic
of
style
as
well
as
meteorological
content.
Any
lingering
errors
are
entirely
my
fault,
not
his.

Many
archivists
and
librarians
helped
make
my
journey
back
to
Isaac's
time
a
pleasant
one,
foremost
among
them
Casey
Greene,
head
of
Special
Collections,
Shelly
Henly
Kelly,
and
Anna
B.
Peebler,
all
of
the
Rosenberg
Library.
Special
thanks
to
Casey
for
no
doubt
saving
my
life
with
his
frequent
warnings
not
to
tip
my
chair
so
far
back.
I
thank,
too,
Margaret
Doran,
Curator
of
Collections
at
Galveston's
Moody
Museum,
for
showing
me
the
letters
of
lovestruck
Will
Moody
Jr.
and
his
beloved
"Hib,"
neither
of
whom
made
it
into
the
final
draft
but
whose
passion
and
observations
nonetheless
inform
the
narrative.
Thanks
also
to
the
Seattle
Public
Library,
for
making
available
to
me
a
berth
in
the
Writer's
Room
and
to
everyone
at
the
National
Archives
Annex,
College
Park,
Maryland,
the
Library
of
Congress,
and
the
Suza-llo
Library
of
the
University
of
Washington
—
just
for
being
there
and
for
helping
to
preserve
so
many
bits
and
pieces
of
the
nation's
past
and
for
happily
fielding
endless,
naive
queries
about
times
long
gone.

Erik
Larson

Seattle

1999

Also
by
ERIK
LARSON

The
Naked
Consumer

Lethal
Passage

ERIK
LARSON

ISAAC'S
STORM

Erik
Larson,
a
contributor
to
Time
magazine,
is
the
author
of
The
Naked
Consumer
and
Lethal
Passage.
His
work
has
appeared
in
The
Atlantic
Monthly,
Harper's,
The
New
Yorker,
and
other
national
magazines.
He
lives
in
Seattle.