Isaac's Storm

While struggling to wade back to his worksite in the early evening to pay his workers, the severity of the storm finally dawns on August. He hires a driver and buggy to go to his house, pick up Louisa and their children, and bring them to his mother's house which is further inland than theirs. The driver succeeds in picking up Louisa and her two children but finds that the way to August's mother's house is impassable. Instead, Louisa tells him to drive to August's sister Julia's house. When they arrive, Louisa sends a message to August with the driver, informing him of their change of plans. The message never reaches August. Meanwhile inside Julia's house, the windows shatter and the piano rolls back and forth across the room.

Confident that this telegram reached his wife and children, Dr. Young hunkers down to wait out the storm in his house, one of the strongest in the neighborhood along with Isaac's. He later recalls, "Being entirely alone, with no responsibility on me, I felt satisfied and very complacent, for I was fool enough not to be the least afraid of wind and water" (181). Larson concludes that "gusts of two hundred miles an hour may have raked Galveston. Each would generate pressure of 152 pounds per square foot, or more than sixty thousand pounds against a house wall. Thirty tons" (195).

At Judson Palmer's, 17 people take refuge as the waters continue to rise and the winds threaten the structural integrity of the house. One of Judson's guests, George Burnett, persuades his mother, wife, and child to follow him out the window to take refuge on the roof. They are immediately swept away into the storm. Judson, his wife Mae, his son Lee, and George's brother Garry hide in the bathroom, while Mr. and Mrs. Boecker and their two children hide in a bedroom. The front half of the house bursts loose, sweeping away the Boecker family. Soon the water in the bathroom is up to Judson's neck, and Judson is forced to hold Lee above the water. The roof collapses, killing Mae and Lee. Judson survives after he is flown onto a makeshift raft made from debris.

At the Weather Bureau station in the sturdy brick Levy Building, one of Isaac's assistants John D. Blagden observes the chaos alone. The station's device for measuring wind-speed has long blown away. Blagden watches the barometer readings plummet, bottoming out at 28.48: “At the time, it was the lowest reading ever recorded by a station of the U.S. Weather Bureau" (194). By 7:30 p.m., the storm surge has grown to at least 15 feet of water: “Galveston became Atlantis" (198).

As the storm surge sweeps through the neighborhoods by the beach, Dr. Young is certain his house will not stand much longer. He removes the hinges from a second-floor door and prepares to use it as a raft whenever the house collapses. The roof of his gallery blows off the house, and the wind pins him to the wall. As he begins to feel the house become buoyant, Dr. Young tears the door loose and dives into the sea. He paddles hard to avoid the wreckage of the collapsed house. Eventually, he and his raft become lodged in a mass of debris, where he remains for eight hours: “He had never been so cold in his life" (203).

At St. Mary's orphanage, the 10 sisters there tie 90 orphans together using a clothesline so that none of them get swept away. However, when the storm surge floods the dormitory, all 90 drown after becoming tangled in the clothesline. Only the three oldest children, who were not attached to the line, survive.

August takes shelter with others in the city's waterworks building. While the building is sturdy, the giant smokestack looks poised to topple and kill all of them. He leaves and makes his way to a grocery store where 80 other people take refuge. The water reaches his neck before finally going down. Once the outside is marginally traversable, August goes looking for Louisa and his children. When he reaches his mother's house, he is shocked to find they are not there. Panicked, he slowly trudges his way to Julia's house. Though the house is at a 45-degree angle, everyone inside is safe. August faints with exhaustion.

At Isaac's house, Joseph continues to insist they evacuate the home. Suddenly, the water rises four feet in a matter of seconds, an implausible event that is nevertheless verified by multiple individuals who survive the storm. The 50 people in the upstairs room begin to pray and sing. When the house is struck by a streetcar trestle, it begins to capsize. Sitting near a window with Allie May and Rosemary, Joseph grabs them by the hands and leaps out the now-horizontal window. Isaac, confused and now fully underwater, manages to escape the wreckage and grab onto a piece of debris. He miraculously finds his eldest daughter Esther in the water and shortly thereafter sees Joseph, Allie May, and Rosemary on a makeshift raft. Tragically, Cora is nowhere to be seen. They drift for hours, first out to sea then back toward the city. At one point, Joseph's golden retriever miraculous joins them on the raft. However, sensing that one member of the family is gone, the dog leaps back out to sea, never to be seen again.