Remembering the 1900 Galveston Hurricane

109 years ago the deadliest storm to ever hit the US struck Galveston TX. There are many estimates as to the number of dead. Usually totals from 6000 to 12000 and bandied about. The most agreed upon number is 8000.

With the highest point on the island only about 8.7 ft and the storm surge of over 15 ft the city was nearly destroyed. The highest measured wind speed was 100mph and that was from the Weather Bureau’s anemometer just before it was blown away in the storm. Estimations of winds of over 120mph and with the barometric pressure reading 28.48 inHg make is a high Cat 4 or Low Cat 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale.

The first telegram to reach the outside world stated "News from Galveston just received by train which could get no closer to the bay shore than six miles where Prairie was strewn with debris and dead bodies. About 200 corpses counted from train. Large Steamship stranded two miles inland. Nothing could be seen of Galveston. Loss of life and property undoubtedly most appalling. Weather clear and bright here with gentle southeast wind."

In the days before sitting on asses and waiting for the government to do something, as soon as word reached Houston the citizens mobilized and set out to do what they could. With the stunned survivors of the storm they began to dig trapped people out of the rubble and set up tents for the estimated 30,000 homeless. Funeral pyres burned day and night as there were too many dead to bury. Houses were rebuilt out of the scrap lumber left over from the destruction. People did what they could. Never waiting for the government to help them, because they realized that they the people were the government.

In 1902 construction began on the Galveston Island Seawall. The most dramatic effort to protect the city was its raising. Dredged sand was used to raise the city of Galveston by as much as 17 feet above its previous elevation. Over 2,100 buildings were raised in the process, including the 3,000-ton St. Patrick’s Church. The seawall and raising of the island were jointly named a National Historical Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2001.(wikipedia.org)

In 1915 a nearly powerful storm hit the island. While still devastating to the town only 53 people died. More people died in the 1900 storm that in all of the other tropical cyclones to strike the US combined.