NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - The riveting true story of the Galveston hurricane of 1900 still the deadliest natural disaster in American history--from the acclaimed author of The Devil in the White City A gripping account ... fascinating to its core and all the more compelling for being true. -- The New York Times Book Review September 8 1900 began innocently in the seaside town of Galveston Texas. Even Isaac Cline resident meteorologist for the U.S. Weather Bureau failed to grasp the true meaning of the strange deep-sea swells and peculiar winds that greeted the city that morning. Mere hours later Galveston found itself submerged in a monster hurricane that completely destroyed the town and killed over six thousand people--and Isaac Cline found himself the victim of a devastating personal tragedy. Using Cline s own telegrams letters and reports the testimony of scores of survivors and our latest understanding of the science of hurricanes Erik Larson builds a chronicle of one man s heroic struggle and fatal miscalculation in the face of a storm of unimaginable magnitude.