Before telling the story at hand, Larson instead chose to brief the readers with a bit of science regarding hurricanes. Larson talks about the history of hurricanes, and also gives us a meteorological lesson on how hurricanes form. Some readers would complain that it is off-topic and pointless. However, it exists simply to prove Larson’s point of hurricanes being a stifling force for humans. This section is not only interesting, but lets readers who are not weather savants to catch up with those who are. Larson makes a somewhat fictional account of the progression of the storm from an “awakening of molecules” (19) somewhere on the coast of Africa to the deadly gale it became when

Ironically, the Weather Bureau’s storm flag, anemometer, rain gauge, and sunshine recorder had long since been blown off of the building by the freakishly strong wind (193). John Blagden, one of Cline’s assistants was trapped in the weather station throughout the night. He kept an eye on the barometer all night, which bottomed out eventually at 28.48”, a figure which no one at the bureau had ever recorded (194). The highest wind speed the station’s anemometer picked up was 100 miles per hour, before it blew away. Between 5:15 p.m. and 7 p.m. Galveston time, the wind reached a sustained velocity of “at least” 120 miles per hour (195). To say the Weather Bureau had underestimated this storm would be an extreme understatement. It had reached catastrophic potential, and now no one was safe.

On September 5, the storm was right on top of Havana, Cuba. No one knows if it had reached hurricane intensity yet. Willis Moore, the chief of the National Weather Bureau, had instituted a ban on all cable transmissions from Cuba, in fear of the country posing as competition to the service (105). He also feared “alarmist” Cuban forecasts could cause mass hysteria among Americans (104). He was even suspicious of Cuba stealing the bureau’s weather observations to improve their own forecasts (104). Moore’s passion for control had caused a schism between Cuban and U.S. meteorologists (102). His blatant disregard to all Cuban forecasts shows arrogance that quite a lot of Americans shared at the time. The United States had emerged from the Spanish American War as world powers, a new role to our citizens, which caused widespread pomposity (66). Banning all cable transmissions was an absurd action, especially since it was the peak of hurricane season. For Cuban’s meteorologists had pioneered the art of hurricane prediction; it was part of their culture (102). In fact, they saw a hurricane as poetry (107).

At 11:25 p.m. Galveston time, a telegram was sent from Houston, Texas to Willis Moore, informing him about the known extent of the damage. The telegram reads:

Some topics in this essay:
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