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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What word does the U.S. weather service make every effort to avoid?

2. What country is leading the innovation in predicting hurricanes at the time of the story?

3. What is the wind speed that Captain Halsey records on his ship the day of the hurricane?

4. Isaac receives conflicting reports about the storm's intensity from where?

5. What could Isaac feel the night before the storm?

Short Essay Questions

1. What kind of man does the narrator describe Isaac to be?

2. What was Isaac's childhood like?

3. How did Isaac meet his wife?

4. Why does hail become an obsession of Isaac's?

5. Why is the final payment on the piano a significant accomplishment to Louisa Rollfing?

6. What does Isaac compare the feeling to that he has on the night before the hurricane?

7. What does Isaac observe when he goes to the beach the morning of the storm?

8. What does the Galveston newspaper advertise as being the chic look for the summer of 1900?

9. How did Isaac do in the initial part of his training for the weather service?

10. What does Captain J. W. Simmons of the Pensacola experience after his ship leaves Galveston the morning of the hurricane?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the true "Law of Storms" as it pertains to the Galveston hurricane?

Essay Topic 2

Isaac said this in relation to deciding on a career: "I then made up my mind that I would seek some field where I could tell big stories and tell the truth." Discuss what he means by this as well as whether he accomplished this goal. What is prophetic about this quote in relation to the hurricane?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the theme of the folly of man and the way it resonates throughout the book. How is the story of Isaac's Storm an example of man's best intentions gone tragically wrong?

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