Galveston Texas Horror Hurricane 1900 Deadly Flood Illustrated Photos Survivors

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Galveston Texas Horror Hurricane 1900 Deadly Flood Illustrated Photos Survivors:
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United Publishers of America, Georgia, 1900. Hardcover. Book Condition: Good. Written by the survivors. From the preface, \"In presenting to the people of this country and the world a chronicle of the frightful visitation of hurricane and flood upon the beautiful and enterprising City of Galveston, which unparalleled calamity occurred on September 8, 1900, the Publishers wish to say that the utmost care has been taken to make the record of the catastrophe complete in every particular
The Great Galveston Hurricane[1], known regionally as the Great Storm of 1900 [2][3][4], was a Category 4 storm, with winds of up to 145 mph (233 km/h), which made landfall on September 8, 1900, in Galveston, Texas, in the United States. It killed 6,000 to 12,000 people, making it the deadliest hurricane and natural disaster in U.S. history.The hurricane appears to have started as an atmospheric trough from West Africa, causing unsettled weather in the Caribbean, and emerging into the Florida Straits as a tropical storm on September 5. Owing to contradictory forecasts, the people of Galveston felt no alarm until the official hurricane warning of September 7. The next morning, a storm surge of 15 ft (4.6 m) washed over the long, flat island-city, which was only 8 ft (2.4 m) above sea level, knocking buildings off their foundations and destroying over 3,600 homes.The disaster ended the Golden Era of Galveston, as the hurricane alarmed potential investors, who turned to Houston instead. The Gulf of Mexico shoreline of Galveston island was subsequently raised by 17 ft (5.2 m) and a 10 mi (16 km) seawall erected.[5]
The Hurricane of 1900 made landfall on September 8, 1900, in Galveston, Texas, in the United States.[6] It had estimated winds of 145 miles per hour (233 km/h) at landfall, making it a Category 4 storm on the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale. It was the deadliest hurricane in US history, and the second costliest hurricane in U.S. history based on the dollar\'s 2005 value (to compare costs with those of Hurricane Katrina and others).The hurricane caused great loss of life with a death toll of between 6,000 and 12,000 people;[7] the number most cited in official reports is 8,000, giving the storm the third-highest number of deaths or injuries of all Atlantic hurricanes, after the Great Hurricane of 1780 and 1998\'s Hurricane Mitch. The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 is one of the deadliest natural disasters ever to strike the United States. The second-deadliest storm to strike the United States, the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane, caused more than 2,500 deaths, and the deadliest storm of recent times, Hurricane Katrina, claimed the lives of approximately 1,800 people.The hurricane occurred before the practice of assigning official code names to tropical storms was instituted, and thus it is commonly referred to under a variety of descriptive names. Typical names for the storm include the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, the Great Galveston Hurricane, and, especially in older documents, the Galveston Flood. It is often referred to by Galveston locals as the Great Storm or the 1900 Storm.File:Galveston Hurricane 1900 - Film - Thomas A Edison.webmGalveston Hurricane 1900 - Film - full footage by employees of Thomas A. Edison, showing storm damageMeteorological history[edit]
Map plotting the track and intensity of the storm according to the Saffir–Simpson scaleThe storm\'s origins are unclear, because of the limited observation ability at the end of the 19th century. Ship reports were the only reliable tool for observing hurricanes at sea, and because wireless telegraphy was in its infancy, these reports were not available until the ships put in at a harbor. The 1900 storm, like many powerful Atlantic hurricanes, is believed to have begun as a Cape Verde–type hurricane—a tropical wave moving off the western coast of Africa. The first formal sighting of the hurricane\'s precursor occurred on August 27, about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) east of the Windward Islands, when a ship recorded an area of \"unsettled weather\". The storm passed through the Leeward Islands on August 30, probably as a tropical depression as indicated by barometric pressure reports from Antigua.[8]Three days later, Antigua reported a severe thunderstorm passing over, followed by the hot, humid calmness that often occurs after the passage of a tropical cyclone. By September 1, U.S. Weather Bureau observers were reporting on a \"storm of moderate intensity (not a hurricane)\" southeast of Cuba. Continuing westward, the storm made landfall on southwest Cuba on September 3, dropping heavy rains. On September 5, it emerged into the Florida Straits as a tropical storm or a weak hurricane.[8] The Weather Bureau ignored reports from Cuban meteorologists because they expected the storm to curve northeast along the coast of North America: \"Assumption became fact as the official government reports stated, wrongly, that the storm was traveling northeast in the Atlantic.\" However, a region of high pressure had pushed the storm to the west into the Gulf of Mexico.[9]The storm was reported to be north of Key West on September 6,[10] and in the early morning hours of Friday, September 7, the Weather Bureau office in New Orleans, Louisiana, issued a report of heavy damage along the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts. Details of the storm were not widespread; damage to telegraph lines limited communication.[11] The Weather Bureau\'s central office in Washington, D.C., ordered storm warnings raised from Pensacola, Florida, to Galveston. By the afternoon of September 7, large swells from the southeast were observed on the Gulf, and clouds at all altitudes began moving in from the northeast. Both of these observations are consistent with a hurricane approaching from the east. The Galveston Weather Bureau office raised its double square Flags; a hurricane warning was in effect. The ship Louisiana encountered the hurricane at 1 p.m. that day after departing New Orleans. Captain Halsey estimated wind speeds of 100 mph (160 km/h). These winds correspond to a Category 2 hurricane in the modern-day Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale.[8]
Hurricane track from September 1 to 10By early afternoon on Saturday, September 8, a steady northEastern wind had picked up. By 5 p.m., the Bureau office was recording sustained hurricane-force winds. That night, the wind direction shifted to the east, and then to the southeast as the hurricane\'s eye began to pass over the island just west of the city. By 11 p.m., the wind was southerly and diminishing. On Sunday morning, clear skies and a 20 mph (30 km/h) breeze off the Gulf of Mexico greeted the Galveston survivors.[8] The storm continued on, and later tracked into Oklahoma. From there, it continued over the Great Lakes while still sustaining winds of almost 40 mph (as recorded over Milwaukee, Wisconsin) and passed north of Halifax, Nova Scotia, on September 12, 1900.[12] From there it traveled into the North Atlantic where it disappeared from observations,[7] after decimating a schooner fleet fishing off the coast of Newfoundland.Background[edit]See also: Galveston, TexasAt the end of the 19th century, the city of Galveston, Texas, was a booming town with a population of 36,000 residents.[13] Its position on the natural harbor of Galveston Bay along the Gulf of Mexico made it the center of trade and one of the biggest cities in the state of Texas. With this prosperity came a sense of complacency.[11]A quarter of a century earlier, the nearby town of Indianola on Matagorda Bay was undergoing its own boom and was second to Galveston among Texas port cities. Then in 1875, a powerful hurricane blew through, nearly destroying the town. Indianola was rebuilt, though a second hurricane in 1886 caused residents to simply give up and move elsewhere.[14] Many Galveston residents took the destruction of Indianola as an object lesson on the threat posed by hurricanes. Galveston is built on a low, flat island, little more than a large sandbar along the Gulf Coast. These residents proposed a seawall be constructed to protect the city, but their concerns were dismissed by the majority of the population and the city\'s government.[15]Since its formal founding in 1839, the city of Galveston had weathered numerous storms, all of which the city survived with ease. Residents believed any future storms would be no worse than previous events.[16] In order to provide an official meteorological statement on the threat of hurricanes, Galveston Weather Bureau section director Isaac Cline wrote an 1891 article in the Galveston Daily News in which he argued not only that a seawall was not needed to protect the city, but also that it would be impossible for a hurricane of significant strength to strike the island.[17] The seawall was not built, and development activities on the island actively increased its vulnerability to storms. Sand dunes along the shore were cut down to fill low areas in the city, removing what little barrier there was to the Gulf of Mexico.[18]Preparations[edit]On September 4, the Galveston office of the National Weather Bureau (as it was then called) began receiving warnings from the Bureau\'s central office in Washington, D.C., that a \"tropical storm\" had moved northward over Cuba. The Weather Bureau forecasters had no way of knowing where the storm was or where it was going. At the time, they discouraged the use of terms such as tornado or hurricane to avoid panicking residents in the path of any storm event. Conditions in the Gulf of Mexico were ripe for further strengthening of the storm. The Gulf had seen little cloud cover for several weeks, and the seas were as warm as bathwater, according to one report. For a storm system that feeds off moisture, the Gulf of Mexico was enough to boost the storm from a tropical storm to a hurricane in a matter of days, with further strengthening likely.[8]Aftermath
House in Galveston on Avenue N, October 15, 1900Weather Bureau forecasters believed the storm would travel northeast and affect the mid-Atlantic coast. \"To them, the storm appeared to have begun a long turn or \'recurve\' that would take it first into Florida, then drive it northeast toward an eventual exit into the Atlantic.\"[19] Cuban forecasters adamantly disagreed, saying the hurricane would continue west. One Cuban forecaster predicted the hurricane would continue into central Texas near San Antonio. Early the next morning, the swells continued despite only partly cloudy skies. Largely because of the unremarkable weather, few residents heeded the warning. Few people evacuated across Galveston\'s bridges to the mainland, and the majority of the population was unconcerned by the rain clouds that began rolling in by midmorning.Isaac Cline claimed that he took it upon himself to travel along the beach and other low-lying areas warning people personally of the storm\'s approach.[20] These reports by Cline and his brother, Galveston meteorologist Joseph L. Cline,[21] have been called into question in recent years, as no other survivors corroborated these accounts. In fact, Cline\'s role in the disaster is the subject of some controversy. Supporters point to Cline\'s issuing a hurricane warning without permission from the Bureau\'s central office;[22] detractors (including author Erik Larson) point to Cline\'s earlier insistence that a seawall was unnecessary and his belief that an intense hurricane could not strike the island.Impact[edit]United States[edit]Deadliest United States hurricanesRank Hurricane Season Fatalities1 \"Galveston\" 1900 8,000–12,000†2 \"Okeechobee\" 1928 2,500+†3 Katrina 2005 1,8364 \"Cheniere Caminada\" 1893 1,100–1,400*5 \"Sea Islands\" 1893 1,000–2,000†6 \"Florida Keys\" 1919 7787 \"Georgia\" 1881 700†8 Audrey 1957 4169 \"Labor Day\" 1935 40810 \"Last Island\" 1856 400††estimated totalReference: Deadliest US hurricanes[23]Texas evacuees[edit]The first train to reach Galveston left Houston on the morning of September 8 at 9:45 a.m. It found the tracks washed out, and passengers were forced to transfer to a relief train on parallel tracks to complete their journey. Even then, debris on the track slowed the train\'s progress to a crawl. The 95 travelers on the train from Beaumont found themselves at the Bolivar Peninsula waiting for the ferry that would carry them, train and all, to the island. When it arrived, the high seas forced the ferry captain to give up on his attempt to dock. The train crew attempted to return the way they had come, but rising water blocked the train\'s path.[24]Ten refugees from the Beaumont train sought shelter at the Point Bolivar lighthouse with 200 residents of Port Bolivar who were already there. The 85 who stayed with the train died when the storm surge overran the tops of the cars.[25]Galveston[edit]“ First news from Galveston just received by train that could get no closer to the bay shore than 6 mi (9.7 km) where the prairie was strewn with debris and dead bodies. About 200 corpses counted from the train. Large steamship stranded 2 mi (3.2 km) 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 historiography, the hurricane and the rebuilding afterward divide what is known as the Golden Era (1875–1900) from the Open Era (1920–1957) of Galveston. The most important long-term impact of the hurricane was to confirm fears that Galveston was a dangerous place to make major investments in shipping and manufacturing operations; the economy of the Golden Era was no longer possible as investors fled. In 1920, Prohibition and tax law enforcement opened up new opportunities for criminal enterprises related to gambling and bootlegging in the city. Galveston rapidly became a prime resort destination enabled by the open vice businesses on the island. This new entertainment-based economy brought decades-long prosperity to the island