Review: The Storm of the Century: Tragedy, Heroism, Survival, and the Epic True Story of America's Deadliest Natural Disaster: The Great Gulf Hurricane of 1900

The Storm of the Century: Tragedy, Heroism, Survival, and the Epic True Story of America's Deadliest Natural Disaster: The Great Gulf Hurricane of 1900 by A.L. Roker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a very readable account of the 1900 hurricane which destroyed the city of Galveston, Texas. I was familiar with the event ( from a well-researched fictional account of the storm by Susan Wittig Albert), but I learned some fascinating details. This was the kind of nonfiction that drove my husband crazy. I kept interrupting his evening with "Listen to this!" and "Did you know?" questions. What I found especially interesting was the history behind the development of meteorology and the US Weather Bureau. I also had had no idea of how advanced the Cuban meteorologists were, nor of the US political machinations that were to blame for the lack of the warning. I was also really interested by the fact that the Cuban weather service was founded by the Belen Jesuits. My father attended Belen for his entire schooling! My only complaints about the book are that it needed a map for reference, and the few pictures were so small that it was hard to see detail.

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