Isaac's Storm - Erik Larson [114]
14 By Friday, the total: Monthly Weather Review, Sept. 1900, 377.
New Orleans: Captain Halsey’s Choice
1 At 9:20 A.M. Wednesday: Monthly Weather Review, Sept. 1900, 374; Fernandez-Partagas, 101, note 34; The New York Times, Sept. 11, 1900, 3.
2 Wrote Piddington: Piddington, 376–77.
3 The Louisiana entered: Fernandez-Partagas, 101, note 34.
Straits of Florida: A Matter of Divination
1 Shortly after noon: The Daily Register, Mobile, Ala., Sept. 6, 1900.
2 “We are today near”: National Archives: General Correspondence. See clipping from La Lucha, Sept. 6, 1900, quoting Jover’s dispatch of 8 A.M. Sept. 5. Box 1475.
3 Winds reached: Fernandez-Partagas, 99, note 21.
4 In Key West: Ibid., 99, note 22.
5 Its velocity dropped: Ibid., 99, note 21.
6 The next morning: National Archives: General Correspondence. See clipping from Havana Post, Sept. 7, 1900, quoting Stockman’s dispatch. Box 1475.
7 Two hours later: Letter, E. M. Vernon, chief, Forecasts and Synoptic Reports Division, to M. S. Douglas, Nov. 9, 1956. Vernon, in response to an inquiry from Douglas, apparently for her book, Hurricane, wrote, “We can find no reference to the issuance of hurricane warnings for the Texas or Louisiana coasts for this hurricane.” Rosenberg Library. 95-00020. Box 1, File 7.
8 “Advise quick”: National Archives: General Correspondence. See telegram, Sept. 6, 1900, from Ocean Fishery, Long Branch, N.J., to Weather Bureau, Washington. Box 1475.
9 “Not safe to leave”: National Archives: General Correspondence. Telegram, Sept. 6, 1900, Chief Willis Moore to Ocean Fishery, Long Branch, N.J.
10 He told Jover: National Archives: General Correspondence. See clipping from La Discusion, Sept. 11, 1900, and attached translation, containing interview with Dunwoody. Box 1475. At one point Jover exclaims, “… I believe that nobody has the right to forbid a citizen telegraphing to a newspaper all that he wishes, be it true or false.” To which Dunwoody responds, “Well I understand that it is not just but can not the government do what it pleases? Moreover the government has a meteorological Bureau and it does not need any more.”
Key West: M Is for Missing
1 The map that reached Erie: National Archives: General Correspondence. National Weather Map, Erie, Pa., Sept. 6, 1900. Box 1475.
Gulf of Mexico: The Devil’s Voice
1 Once past the bar: Fernandez-Partagas, 101, note 34.
2 At 6:00 A.M. Thursday: The New York Times, Sept. 11, 1900.
3 At one o’clock, Halsey: Ibid.
4 “I do not like to speak: Ibid.
5 The Louisiana rose clear: Ibid.
6 In 1912, the Reverend J. J. Williams: Tannehill, 18.
7 The frightened Malay: Piddington, 208.
8 To Gilbert McQueen: Reid, 92.
9 One of the strangest: Reid, 73–76; also Piddington, 340.
10 On September 1, 1923: Tannehill, 128.
11 A Weather Bureau meteorologist: Ibid., 129.
12 In Galveston, Thursday: Daily Journal.
The Storm: Swells
1 The tallest wave: Lockhart, 115.
2 A tsunami: Zebrowski, 134. Zebrowski tells the story of the U.S.S. Wateree, a paddle steamer caught in a tsunami that came ashore in northern Chile on Aug. 13, 1868. Investigators discovered the wave continued traveling another 5,580 miles to strike the Sandwich Islands twelve hours and thirty-seven minutes later. They computed an average speed of five hundred miles per hour. Rear Admiral L. G. Billings wrote, “Looking seaward, we saw, first, a thin line of phosphorescent light, which loomed higher and higher until it seemed to touch the sky; its crest, crowned with the death light of phosphorescent glow, showing the sullen masses of water below.” The Wateree landed upright and intact three kilometers inland. The U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey later estimated the tsunami had risen to seventy feet in height. See Zebrowski, 131–35.
Galveston: Heat
1 He was a veteran: Galveston News, Sept. 13, 1900; see also Weems, 20–22, 26–27, 46. For details of ship’s size and ownership, see “Vessels at Galveston” in The New York Times, Sept. 11, 1900. Also, in the Rosenberg Library’s vast collection