![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() A wave of atmospheric turbulence slipped from the coast of western Africa. Far away, in Africa, immense thunderstorms blossomed over the city of Dakar, and great currents of wind converged. Rain fell on Galveston with greater intensity than anyone could remember. Odd things seemed to happen everywhere: A plague of crickets engulfed Waco. That August, a strange, prolonged heat wave gripped the nation and killed scores of people in New York and Chicago. Nothing in nature could hobble the gleaming city of Galveston, then a magical place that seemed destined to become the New York of the Gulf. The idea that a hurricane could damage the city of Galveston, Texas, where he was based, was to him preposterous, "an absurd delusion." It was 1900, a year when America felt bigger and stronger than ever before. Isaac Cline was one of the era's new men, a scientist who believed he knew all there was to know about the motion of clouds and the behavior of storms. At the dawn of the 20th century, a great confidence suffused America. ![]()
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