As the story goes, even though Isaac Cline was absolved by the US Weather Service, he felt he bore responsibility for not seeing the signs in time to have evacuated Galveston Island. Losing is pregnant wife didn't help him any, and he left Galveston permanently for New Orleans.
Another anecdote from a story I mentioned in the forums is below, indicitive of Cline's resolution to never see Galveston repeated:
QUOTE(Heidi Lutz @ Galveston County Daily News)
Cline told his grandson stories about the Mississippi River floods of 1903 with pride. A flood threatened the Mississippi River valley all the way south to New Orleans. Cline forecast water levels would reach 21 feet at the city.
The U.S. Weather Service office disagreed and urged him to rescind that warning and continue with flood warnings that omitted any forecasts on flood levels. He disobeyed orders and continued to forecast such high water.
The levees at New Orleans were not high enough to keep the Mississippi River in its banks were the river to hit 21 feet. Cline urged the Levee Board to raise the levees, if only temporarily, to avoid the disaster that would follow if the river overflowed into the city.
Though he met resistance in the beginning, he was persistent, and the Levee Board agreed to construct a temporary levee of sandbags and raise the levee from two to four feet - and as high as five feet in some places.
This temporary levee prevented the river from flooding the city for some four weeks, with the river cresting at 20.7 feet.
"He really made his mark with his work on the Mississippi River floods," Vorus Williams said.
http://www.1900storm.com/isaaccline/index.lasso
The U.S. Weather Service office disagreed and urged him to rescind that warning and continue with flood warnings that omitted any forecasts on flood levels. He disobeyed orders and continued to forecast such high water.
The levees at New Orleans were not high enough to keep the Mississippi River in its banks were the river to hit 21 feet. Cline urged the Levee Board to raise the levees, if only temporarily, to avoid the disaster that would follow if the river overflowed into the city.
Though he met resistance in the beginning, he was persistent, and the Levee Board agreed to construct a temporary levee of sandbags and raise the levee from two to four feet - and as high as five feet in some places.
This temporary levee prevented the river from flooding the city for some four weeks, with the river cresting at 20.7 feet.
"He really made his mark with his work on the Mississippi River floods," Vorus Williams said.
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