6000 killed in the Galveston hurricane. 124 years ago and the surviving families are still telling stories.

https://www.galvestonhistorycenter.org/research/1900-storm

My BOI friends still tell their great grandparents stories of survival. Hopefully those tales keep being told.

I think the previous worst hurricane was the independence hurricane of 1775. 4000 killed on the eastern seaboard.

Some notable facts; they burned piles of bodies on the beach. They had burial at sea for 700. Over 10,000 homeless. I can't imagine dealing with the aftermath.

I have read several books on the 1900 storm, even have one that was published in 1900. shortly after the storm.

I prefer "A Weekend in September" by John Edward Weems. It was published in 1957 so he was able to interview several people who lived through the hurricane. The book has a map of Galveston with the location of residences and other structures shown, those of people he wrote about. I have gone to some of those locations (though now raised several feet) and wondered what it must have been like for those there that night.

I read where many of the bodies buried at sea washed back up on the shoreline….that had to be extremely tough to deal with.

The hurricane that destroyed Galveston 124 years ago, on September 8, 1900, remains the nation's deadliest natural disaster. Although its death toll will never be known precisely, the 1900 Storm claimed upwards of 8,000 lives on Galveston Island and several thousand more on the… pic.twitter.com/jeUWJ2cLpU

— Traces of Texas (@TracesofTexas) September 9, 2024

Quote:

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The hurricane that destroyed Galveston 124 years ago, on September 8, 1900, remains the nation's deadliest natural disaster. Although its death toll will never be known precisely, the 1900 Storm claimed upwards of 8,000 lives on Galveston Island and several thousand more on the mainland. In Galveston, it destroyed 2, 636 houses and left thousands more damaged. The city's property losses were estimated at $28-30 million.

The area of destruction an area in which nothing remained standing after the storm consisted of approximately 1,900 acres of land and was arc-shaped, with complete demolition of structures in the west, south, and eastern portions of the city, while the north-central section of the city suffered the least amount of damage. In the immediate aftermath of the storm, a 3 mi long, 30 ft wall of debris was situated in the middle of the island. As severe as the damage to the city's buildings was, the death toll was even greater. Because of the destruction of the bridges to the mainland and the telegraph lines, no word of the city's destruction was able to reach the mainland at first.

On the morning of September 9, one of the few ships at the Galveston wharves to survive the storm, the Pherabe, set sail and arrived in Texas City on the western side of Galveston Bay with a group of messengers from the city. When they reached the telegraph office in Houston early on September 10, a short message was sent to Texas Governor Joseph D. Sayers and U.S. 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." The messengers reported an estimated five hundred dead; this was initially considered to be an exaggeration. The citizens of Houston knew a powerful storm had blown through and had prepared to provide assistance. Workers set out by rail and ship for the island almost immediately. Rescuers arrived to find the city completely destroyed.

Zoom in on the details of this map, which is especially compelling if you're viewing on a large computer monitor. It's harrowing stuff, to be sure.

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I briefly attended Salem Lutheran Church in Rosehill. I recall one sermon that recounted the men of the church organizing a relief party immediately following the storm. It must have taken several days to to reach Galveston by horse/wagon using the farm roads of the day.

We still have some furniture pieces that survived the storm, some that made the trip from Germany when they first came to Texas.

https://www.1900storm.com/orphanage.html

This story of the orphanage is in one of the books I have read….and it always seems to really tug at my heartstrings!!

ABATTBQ87 said:

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Filmed by Thomas Edison

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Press was initially refused permission to enter Galveston. The only reason Edison's crew was able to film was because motion pictures were so new that the equipment wasn't recognized for what it was.

When my dad was a kid, he knew a gentleman that was an orphan from that event.

Crazy. That's why that seawall exists. It might flood but it will never be washed over by 15+ feet of Category 4 storm surge and waves.

They literally raised the entire city after the storm. Quite an engineering feat any time, but in the early 20th century even moreso.

https://www.thestoryoftexas.com/discover/texas-story-project/raising-galveston-above-the-gulf

Homeowners were responsible for the expense of raising their homes and fences. In many cases, when homeowners could not afford to raise their residences, they would simply move to the second floor and allow the first to be filled in.

one safe place said:

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FTACo88-FDT24dad said:

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Crazy. That's why that seawall exists. It might flood but it will never be washed over by 15+ feet of Category 4 storm surge and waves.

They literally raised the entire city after the storm. Quite an engineering feat any time, but in the early 20th century even moreso.

https://www.thestoryoftexas.com/discover/texas-story-project/raising-galveston-above-the-gulf

Homeowners were responsible for the expense of raising their homes and fences. In many cases, when homeowners could not afford to raise their residences, they would simply move to the second floor and allow the first to be filled in.

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One advantage of raising the east end in the early 1900s was very cheap labor as well as there not being much of an issue if workers got hurt or killed on the job, at least not like there would be today. Same with the water system in New York or the subway system. To raise Galveston today would require many millions of dollars in just planning alone, engineering, and probably 30 years just to get the permits!

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The Delaware Aqueduct is the longest tunnel in the world and supplies about half of New York City's drinking water.

Whoops. Thought I was on the "interesting fact" thread. Sorry for the tangent.