howeenterprise.com
Monday, September 7, 2015
Page #14
1900 Galveston Hurricane slipped into the Gulf, no one was certain where it was or where it was going. In 1900, no one even really understood the routes that hurricanes took. With so many areas lacking telephone or even telegraph service, there was no way to pinpoint who was in the most danger.
Dr. Ken Bridges It crept quietly across the Gulf of Mexico, a swirl of horrors aimed straight at the Texas coast. It had no name. It would leave a trail of death that would haunt the coast for more than a century. The year was 1900, and the event was the notorious Galveston hurricane.
Today, all tropical weather is closely monitored by meteorologists through satellites, The survivors rebuilt in the face of radar, and even airplane flights into the difficulties afterward. A 17-foot the hearts of these violent storms. sea wall was built along the length of But this would be far into the future the shoreline and the entire city was from the 1900 hurricane. The first raised to a height of 16 feet. reconnaissance flight into a hurricane did not occur until 1943. In August 1915, a new hurricane The first hurricane image captured By September 7, meteorologists in formed in the Caribbean Sea. By this by a satellite did not occur until Galveston could see the ominous time, communications and 1961. Galveston has faced signs in the distance – the dark forecasting techniques had improved hurricanes since that time and clouds rolling in and the surf to the point that weather stations survived, but “The Storm” of 1900 growing increasingly violent. could start warning islands and cities forever changed the island. further west into the Caribbean and By the next afternoon, September Gulf of Mexico that a storm was Dr. Bridges is a Texas native, 8, the hurricane hit. The winds, writer, and history professor. He approaching. This time, Galveston rains, and waves grew ever was ready. The storm caused heavy can be reached at stronger. Winds were estimated at flooding in the city and left eleven drkenbridges@gmail.com. well past 130 miles per hour. A dead, but the sea wall held and storm surge of 15 feet pulverized prevented a far worse catastrophe. the island whose highest point was only nine feet. Nothing could stop the silent death of rising water as it claimed one block after another. Houses were washed away, terrified families inside, debris smashing into one building after the next. Countless souls were washed into the sea, never heard from again.
Galveston was a bustling and prosperous port city at the time. For most of its existence since its founding in 1839, it had been the largest city in Texas. Previous hurricanes had wrecked cities along the Texas and Gulf coast over the years, and Galveston had weathered its share of storms. Fearful of the forces of strong hurricanes, some residents had proposed a sea wall to keep out the most damaging waves from By the following day, the such storms. But their pleas went hurricane passed and the survivors unheard. could see the extent of the nightmare. More than 8,000 On September 3, reports of a people died. It was the deadliest tropical storm in Cuba had hurricane ever to hit the United emerged, followed by reports of States. Few structures survived, the storm near Key West, Florida, mostly on the western side of the two days later. The U. S. Weather island. Total property damage Bureau sent warnings throughout was calculated at nearly $4 along the Gulf and Atlantic billion. In 2015 dollars, it is the coasts. But once the hurricane equivalent of more than $114
billion. The city government nearly collapsed in the aftermath.
