Isaac's Storm (55 page)

Read Isaac's Storm Online

Authors: Erik Larson

BOOK: Isaac's Storm
5.51Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

218. "My
heart
suddenly
":
Cline,
Joseph,
55.

218. "We
placed
the
children":
Cline,
Storms,
97.

218. "Our
little
group":
Clinejoseph,
56.

218. "Sometimes
the
blows":
Cline,
Storms,
97.

218. "At
one
point":
Cline,Joseph,
57.

219. They
drifted:
Cline,
Storms,
96-97;
Cline,Joseph,
56-57.

219. A
rocket
of
timber:
Cline,Joseph,
58.

219. Joseph
saw
a
small
girl:
Cline,]oseph,
58;
Cline,
Storms,
97.

219. "Papa!Papa!":
Clinejoseph,
59.

219. And
there
was
this:
Ibid.,
57.

PART
V:
STRANGE
NEWS

Telegram

223. First
news
from:
National
Archives:
General
Correspondence.

Gulf
of
Mexico:
First
Glimpse

224. About
dawn:
Galveston
News,
Sept.
13,1900.

224.
"We
found":
Ibid.

Galveston:
Silence

226.
Saturday
evening
someone:
New
Orleans
Daily
Picayune,
Sept.
9,1900.

226.
On
Sunday
a
smallparty:
Weems,
39.

227.
As
one
of
the
region's:
Personal
Accounts:
Sterett,
1
-3.
See
also
Acheson,
205-17.
227.
The
swollen
bodies:
Personal
Accounts:
Sterett,
2.

227.
For
Sterett:
Void.

227.
"And
so
help
me":
Ibid.

228.
"Everything,
it
seemed":
Ibid.

229. "It
must
have
taken":
Personal
Accounts:
Monagan.

229. "I
am
an
old
soldier":
"Galveston
Horror,"
33.

229. At
one
point
Sterett:
McComb,
127.

229. It
was
a
night:
Personal
Accounts:
Monagan.

229. They
stopped
a
man:
Ibid.

229. "Surely
the
man":
Ibid.

28th
and
P:
Searching

230.
It
was,
he
said:
Cline,
"Century,"
31.

231.
In
the
wreckage:
Isaac
Cline
never
says
exacdy
what
he
saw
that
morning,
but,
as
hundreds
of
photographs
in
the
Rosenberg
Library
storm
collection
show,
there
can
be
no
doubt
that
Isaac
saw
hats,
clothing,
corpses,
and
far
more.

231.
One
hundred
corpses:
Ousley,
120.

231.
Some
had
double-puncture
wounds:
See
note
for
page
202,
Venomous
snakes.

231.
Forty-three
bodies:
Ousley,
120.

231.
"There
were
so
many
":
Personal
Accounts:
Tipp,
9

232.
Isaac
checked:
What
Isaac
Cline
did
in
the
days
immediately
after
the
storm
is
a
mystery.
I
have
based
this
paragraph
and
others
that
follow
on
my
sense
of
Isaac's
character,
and
on
my
understanding,
derived
from
scores
of
personal
accounts,
of
how
people
throughout
Galveston
behaved
after
the
storm.
That
he
visited
the
hospitals
and
morgues
seems
beyond
question.

232.
J.
H.
Hawley:
Personal
Accounts:
HawleyJ.
H.,
1-2.

232.
A
photograph
survives.:
Photograph
of
morgue.
Rosenberg
Library.
Storm
of
1900
Collection.
G-1771.
Folder
1.2.
"Bodies."
No.
2.

232.
Isaac,
moving
systematically:
See
note
for
page
232,
Isaac
checked.

233.
Sunday
he
gave:
Galveston
News,
Sept.
9,1900.
233.
That
morning
Father
James
Kirwin:
Ousley,
116.
233.
Anthony
Credo
learned:
Tapp,
12.

233.
Soon
after
Ruby
Credo:
Ibid.,
10.

233.
Judson
Palmer
lay:
First
Baptist
Church,
3.

234.
Later
a
colleague:
Personal
Accounts:
Lewis.

234.
John
W.
Harris
was
seven:
Personal
Accounts:
Harris,
7-8.
234.
People
moved
as
if
dazed:
Coulter,
224.

234.
"You
will
hear":
Ousley,
120.

235.
"Oh
God":
Personal
Accounts:
Hopkins,
Interview,
10.
235.
The
storm,
Halsey
told:
The
New
York
Times,
Sept.
11,1900.

235.
A
photograph
exists:
Photograph.
27th
St.
and
Ave.
N
Looking
S.E.
Rosenberg
Library.
Storm
of
1900
Collection.
G-1771.
File
7.5.
No.
13.

236.
The
Muats
had
expected:
Muat,
Thomas.
Untitled
news
clipping.
Rosenberg
Library.
Storm
of
1900
Collection.
Subject
File.
News
Clippings.

Daily
Journal:
Tuesday,
Sept.
11

238. /.
M.
Cline:
Daily
Journal.

Galveston:
"Not
Dead"

239. The
Tribune
ran:
Galveston
Tribune-Post,
Sept.
12,1900.

239.
Soldiers
rounded
up:
Ousley,
117.

239.
The
barge
was
moored:
Photograph
of
barge.
Rosenberg
Library.
Storm
of
1900
Collection.
Photograph
G-1771,
File
1.2.
No.
9.

240.
"It
was
realized":
Ousley,
266.

240.
Phillip
Gordie
Tipp
's
crew:
Personal
Accounts:
Tipp,
10.

240.
The
city's
lifesaving
squad:
Coulter,
199.

241.
"The
stench
from":
Personal
Accounts:
Deer,
2.

241.
Emma
Beal
was
ten:
Personal
Accounts:
Beal,
Part
1,9;
Part
II,
9-10.
241.
One
survivor:
Personal
Accounts:
Stuart,
53.
241.
There
was
talk:
Galveston
Mews,
Sept.
12,1900.
241.
On
Sunday
night:
Galveston
News,
Sept.
17,1900.

241.
Andfor
William
Marsh
Rice:
Morris,
84-112.

242.
"Diligent
inquiry":
Personal
Accounts:
Stuart,
53.
242.
"/
do
not
know
".Personal
Accounts:
Blagden,
5.
242.
"Fearful
hot":
Personal
Accounts:
"Charlie,"
5.
242.
"Every
day
the
stench":
Tapp,
12.

244.
Clara
Barton
arrived:
Barton.
Telegram,
Barton
to
William
Howard.
Sept.
18,

1900.
244.
She
came
with
a
trainload:
Barton.
Letter,
Barton
to
Mayor
of
Galveston.
Sept.

20,1900.
244.
Hearst.
.
.
gave
$50,000:
Report,
2.

244.
The
Kansas
State
Insane
Asylum:
Barton.
Letter,
Sept.
25,1900.

244.
Colored
Eureka
Brass
Band:
Barton.
Letter,
Sept.
26,1900.

245.
ElginMilkine
Company:
Barton.
Letter,
Sept.
19,1900.
245.
Fraternal
Mystic
Circle:
Barton.
Letter,
Sept.
20,1900.
245.
Ladies
of
the
Maccabees:
Barton.
Letter,
Oct.
13,1900.
245.
The
city
of
Liverpool:
Report,
71.

245.
Cotton
Association
of
Liverpool:
Ibid.

245.
New
York
sent
the
most:
Barton.
Report
of
Red
Cross
Relief,
Galveston,
Texas,
77.

245.
New
Hampshire
sent:
Ibid.

245.
"It
would
not
surprise
me":
Barton.
Letter,
Oct.
14,1900.

245.
Among
the
contributions:
Barton.
Letter.
Cambria
Steel
Company
to
Clara
Barton,
Sept.
21,1900;
Barton
to
Cambria
Steel
Company,
Sept.
25,1900.

245.
Observers
within:
National
Archives:
General
Correspondence.
Letter,
Isaac
Cline
to
chief
of
Weather
Bureau,
Nov.
8,
1900.
Isaac
wrote,
"We
fail
to
find
language
which
will
express
our
feelings
of
gratitude
toward
our
friends
in
the
Bureau..."

245.
"So,
feeling
thus":
National
Archives:
General
Correspondence.
Letter,
William
Alexander
to
chief
of
Weather
Bureau,
Nov.
20,1900.

246.
At
11:30
A.M.,
Joseph:
National
Archives:
General
Correspondence.
Telegram,
Joseph
Cline
to
Weather
Bureau,
Sept.
11,1900.

246.
Exactly
three
minutes
later:
National
Archives:
General
Correspondence.
Telegram,
Isaac
Cline
to
Weather
Bureau,
Sept.
11,1900.

247.
"I
wish
to
report":
Galveston
News,
Sept.
17,1900.

247.
Isaac
could
not
help
it:
Isaac
never
directly
states
that
he
should
have
taken
his
family
to
the
Levy
Building
early
on,
but
how
could
any
man
in
a
similar
position
avoid
such
thoughts?

247.
Joseph,
underneath:
See
Joseph's
memoir,
When
the
Heavens
Frowned.
In
his
chapter
on
the
Galveston
hurricane,
49-63,Joseph
clearly,
if
at
times
obliquely,
claims
to
have
recognized
the
true
danger
of
the
storm
when
Isaac
did
not.
See,
for
example,
page
53,
when
he
writes,
"Until
my
statement
of
the
danger,
everyone
there
had
believed
[Isaac's
house]
to
be
immune
to
destruction
by
storm."
Everyone,
presumably,
including
his
brother.

248.
There
were
dreams:
I
base
this
observation
on
human
nature.
What
survivor
of
a
tragedy
has
never
dreamed
that
the
outcome
had
been
different?

248.
"A
dream,"Freud
wrote:
Freud,
155.

248.
"The
hurricane
which
visited":
Cline,
"Special
Report,"
372.

248.
"Storm
warnings
were
timely":
Ibid.,
373.

248.
"As
a
result
thousands":
Ibid.,
373.

249.
In
later
years:
Letter,
E.
M.
Vernon,
chief,
Forecasts
and
Synoptic
Reports
Divi-sion,
to
M.
S.
Douglas,
Nov.
9,1956.
"It
is
estimated,"
Isaac
Cline
wrote,
about
12,000
people
moved
out
prior
to
the
crisis,
otherwise
the
loss
o
would
doubdess
have
been
more
than
double
what
it
was..."
Isaac
deployed
the
passive
voice
whenever
he
sought
to
describe
something
he
himself
had
done.
The
12,000
is
almost
certainly
his
own
estimate.
Rosenberg
Library.
95-00020.
Box
1,
File
7.

249.
"Among
the
lost":
Cline,
"Special
Report,"
373.

249.
"My
personal
experience":
National
Archives:
General
Correspondence.
Letter,
I.
M.
Cline
to
chief
of
the
Weather
Bureau,
Sept.
23,1900.
Box
1476.

Washington:
A
Letter
from
Moore

250.
"The
practical
inutility
":
Houston
Post,
Sept.
14,1900.

, Draft

250. Moore,
in
a
five-page
letter:
National
Archives:
General
Correspondence.

of
letter,
Willis
Moore
to
Houston
Post,
Sept.
22,
1900.
Letter
as
published,
Houston
Post,
Sept.
28,1900.
Box
1476.

251. "We
would
all
rather
believe":
Houston
Post,
Sept.
28,1900.

251.
Isaac
mailed
the
clippings:
National
Archives:
General
Correspondence.
Letter,
I.
M.
Cline
to
chief
of
the
Weather
Bureau,
Sept.
28,1900.
Box
1476.

251.
"Regarding
the
warnings":
Ibid.,
2.

252.
"If
I
had
taken
the
time":
Cline,
Storms,
98.
252.
"I
did
not
foresee":
Ibid.,
99.

252.
TheBoston
Herald:
Monthly
Weather
Review,
Sept.
1900,376.

252.
The
Buffalo,
New
York,
Courier:
Ibid.,
376.

253.
The
Inter-Ocean:
Ibid.,
377.

253.
"An
example?":
National
Archives:
General
Correspondence.
See
clipping
from
Diario
de
la
Marina,
Sept.
18,1900.
Box
1475.

254.
"It
is
apparent
to
me:
National
Archives:
General
Correspondence.
Letter,
Willis
Moore
to
secretary
of
agriculture,
Sept.
21,1900.
Box
1475.

28th
and
P:
The
King

255. There
were
miracles:
First
Baptist
Church,
7.

255-
"The
dreams
of
young
children
":
Freud,
160.

256. Isaac,
Joseph,
and
John
Blagden:
Circular.
Office
of
chief
clerk.
Weather

Bureau.
Sept.
28,1900.

256.
Someone
donated
a
case:
Barton.
Report
of
Red
Cross
Relief,
Galveston,
Texas,
52.
256.
The
Palmetto
Post:
Palmetto
Post,
Sept.
20,1900.
In
Barton.

Other books

Pure Dead Brilliant by Debi Gliori
Hot Under Pressure by Louisa Edwards
Ebony Hill by Anna Mackenzie
Kitten Wars by Anna Wilson
Tennyson's Gift by Lynne Truss
The Widow's Secret by Sara Mitchell