Posted on 01/15/2009 12:07:29 PM PST by Coleus
It was the storm of the century - the 20th century. Before Katrina became shorthand for nature's fury, there was the unnamed hurricane of 1900 that nearly wiped Galveston, Tex., off the map. An estimated 6,000 people were killed when the Category 4 storm packing 135 mph winds made landfall on Sept. 8, 1900, making it the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history. Now it could get whacked again by Hurricane Ike.
In 1900, Galveston, located on a flat island off the Texas coast, was a boom town with 42,000 residents. It was then the biggest city in the Lone Star state. So much money passed through Galveston it became known as the "Wall Street of the Southwest."
After Galveston was socked by a a 15-foot wall of water, the city was never the same. More than 3,600 homes were destroyed. So were the bridges to the mainland and the telegraph lines. It wasn't until two days later that survivors were able to make it to the mainland and send a telegram to President William McKinley. "I have been deputized by the mayor and Citizen's Committee of Galveston to inform you that the city of Galveston is in ruins," read the message.
They estimated that 500 people were dead - and at first they were not believed. Rescuers found Galveston in tatters and hundreds of bodies bobbing in the flooded streets. Mansions in the wealthy Strand District survived; the shanties of the poor were reduced to splinters. There was no place to bury all the bodies, so rescue workers threw them out to sea. When gulf currents washed them back to shore, they erected funeral pyres that burned for weeks.
To shore up defenses against future storms, city leaders built a concrete seawall that was 7 miles long and 17 feet high. To replenish the population, they launched the Galveston Movement to lure newly arrived Eastern European Jews from New York and other northeastern cities. Galveston is the birthplace of GOP Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, jailed Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard and the late soul singer Barry White.
My gr gr grandparents were killed in that storm.
Why a 4 month old story?
Why post this story now?
Weeks? There were newspapers, telegraph, and telephone in 1900.
You'll notice that in 1900 that Galveston was the biggest city in Texas.
So not only did Galveston rebuild without the help of the federal government, they rebuilt smartly without the help of the government. The residents of Galveston didn't rebuild where their homes and businesses were destroyed. They rebuilt 50 miles inland in a city called "Houston".
Bush/Cheney/Rove’s fault.
Actually, much of Galveston was basically moved to Houston. Galveston and Houston were almost the same size (in terms of population) in 1900. Galveston today has fewer than 60,000 residents, while Houston is now the fourth-largest city in the U.S.
Weeks? There were newspapers, telegraph, and telephone in 1900. >>
i guess you never saw hurricane devestation before...
Heard recently that it is now third. Don't know if it is true. If not, it will be in the next 5 years.
I live in Houston. We took quite a beating from Ike a few months ago ... but, even around here, you don’t hear much about it these days. No whining and moaning like you heard after Katrina. No benefits or telethons by celebrities looking to help the downtrodden.
The day after the storm, trucks were out erecting power lines and restoring power, people were cleaning debris off of their streets ... and nobody was complaining (though some complaining did surface when power took a couple of weeks to fully restore).
God Bless Texas! Salt-of-the-Earth, hard-working, good people ... not whiners waiting in line for an unnecessary handout.
SnakeDoc
Maybe so. Some of those statistics can be confusing if the population is measured for the city itself or for the entire metro area.
I agree, but I can tell you that Houston is growing veryu fast and there is lots of land available at very low costs that is very easy to build on and very developer friendly with very low fees.
I lived, surfed, fished and went to school (sort of) in Galveston in the late 60s-70s. The Great Storm is sewn deep in the culture and DNA of the islanders. It is not too hard to imagine how the island was cut off from all comms after the hurricane. If I remember right, a 4 foot storm surge would close the railroad and the highway off the island.
I was driving on the seawall one night, high as a kite, during a Trop Storm and the guy on the AM radio station said, “If you are driving on the seawall now, the police want you to get off!!” I was the only one I saw up there, so it was nice to be recognized.
Another fond memory is jumping off of the Flagship Hotel during high surf events so we wouldn’t have to paddle out.
Oh yea, and surfing under the lights at night while everything looked like Jello.
Good times, good times.
Galveston got hit harder than Houston (obviously), so it’ll take longer to completely rebuild. Life is back to normal in Houston. And, from what I understand, its getting there in Galveston (though, I actually haven’t been to Galveston since the storm).
Nonetheless ... I’ve been endlessly impressed with the absence of whining and hand-wringing around here.
SnakeDoc
They are adding massive amounts of sand in front of the San Luis. It really scary to see sand within feet from Seawall Blvd.
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