The category 4 hurricane that struck Galveston, Texas, was the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history. The low-lying barrier island was battered by 120-mile-per-hour winds that killed several thousand people and destroyed two-thirds of Galveston’s buildings, including more than thirty-six hundred homes.
In 1900, Galveston was a vibrant city of thirty-seven thousand people. Located at the eastern end of a thirty-mile-long barrier island, the area’s cotton production made Galveston the third-busiest commercial port in the United States and one of the wealthiest cities in the state of Texas. With an opera house and medical college, Galveston also could boast of being the first in Texas to have telephone
Most adult Galvestonians had lived through hurricanes and viewed them as inconveniences rather than serious threats. Hurricanes had never severely damaged the island, so many believed that natural defenses protected the city from storms. However, after a powerful hurricane in 1886 destroyed the nearby port town of Indianola, some residents called for construction of a seawall to provide a storm barrier. Despite frequent discussion the wall was not constructed. Ironically, developers increased the city’s vulnerability to waves and storm surge by removing coastal vegetation and moving sand from beach dunes to fill low-lying areas.
Typical wreckage from the Galveston Hurricane. The large building at the left is the high school for black students.
On August 27, 1900, an unnamed tropical depression began forming in the equatorial mid-Atlantic. Gaining energy, the storm moved westward through the Greater Antilles causing damage on the island of Jamaica
The morning of September 8 began with a pleasant autumn breeze. Few seemed alarmed that seawater had begun inundating homes near the waterfront. Such flooding
Despite signs of the approaching storm, few people evacuated to the mainland. As water levels rose residents moved to the upper stories of buildings or to higher ground near the city’s center. At 3:30 that afternoon, Cline drafted a message to the Weather Bureau
By 4
At 6:30, a large wave moved ashore in advance of the hurricane’s eye, causing a sudden four-foot surge. Survivors clung to rooftops, the tops of trees, or floating debris. Huddled together, some found shelter on the upper floors of large mansions and other buildings, such as the Tremont Hotel, in the center of the city. More than four hundred people crowded into City Hall. About a half-hour later, wind speeds reached 120 miles per hour. Water that now covered the entire island reached its peak depth within a few hours. By 11
During the early hours of Sunday morning, the winds began to subside. As the sun came up the storm’s catastrophic devastation was evident. The tremendous force of the wind, coupled with the storm surge, had pushed buildings off their foundations. Two-thirds of the city’s structures had been razed, including thirty-six hundred homes. Among buildings destroyed was St. Mary’s Orphanage, where ten Catholic nuns and ninety children perished; a few scattered bricks were all that remained of the building. Within a few hours, Galveston had been transformed from a wealthy vacation destination to a ruined landscape of uprooted trees, broken timbers, and buckled sidewalks.
Because bridges and telegraph lines were damaged, word of the devastation had not reached the mainland. Departing on Sunday, volunteers carrying messages to the governor of Texas and the president of the United States navigated a twenty-foot steam launch ten miles across Galveston Bay to Texas City on the mainland. The messages were not received until Monday, September 10.
Rescue workers arriving from Houston by train and ship were stunned by the carnage. The dead were scattered everywhere among the rubble of homes and businesses. An initial estimate of five hundred killed was soon determined to be too low, as the search revealed more victims, many battered beyond recognition. On Sunday morning, Galveston’s mayor held an emergency town meeting. Because there was no functional city government, an ad hoc central relief committee was appointed and martial law implemented to stop looting.
Every able-bodied man was required to participate in the cleanup, which was made even more miserable by heat, humidity, and the unbearable stench. Citizen squads worked to dispose of bodies by loading them onto barges to be dumped into the gulf. This process had to be stopped when it was discovered that corpses were floating back to shore. Unable to bury the large number of victims, workers had to burn the bodies in funeral pyres. Survivors received emergency shelter in army tents and makeshift buildings constructed from salvageable timber. Seventy-eight-year-old Clara Barton
Calls to rebuild the city began soon after the storm. In an effort to avoid a repeat of the disaster, city leaders developed plans to build a seawall and raise the island’s elevation by seventeen feet. The first section of the wall was completed in 1904, and subsequent sections were constructed during the next fifty-five years, eventually extending the wall’s length to ten miles. Sixteen million cubic yards of sand were dredged from Galveston’s ship channel to provide fill for raising the city’s elevation. Gas, water, and sewer pipes along with streetcar lines, houses, and other buildings were lifted up. An all-weather bridge to the mainland was constructed to replace the wagon bridge destroyed by the storm.
Although several hurricanes have struck the United States with greater intensity or have been more costly, such as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, no hurricane has been more deadly than the 1900 storm in Galveston. The number of persons killed by the Galveston hurricane was greater than the combined death tolls of the 1871 Great Chicago Fire,
A series of measures, including the construction of a seawall, were implemented after the storm to prevent similar disasters. Galveston saw another hurricane in 1915, which had been comparable in strength to the 1900 hurricane. Although 275 persons were killed, the seawall and other measures were credited with preventing the death toll from being substantially higher. In the years after the 1900 storm, scientific weather forecasting and radio
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Cartwright, Gary. Galveston: A History of the Island. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1998. Relates the story of Galveston’s rise as a commercial center, the impact of the 1900 hurricane, and its aftermath. -
Galveston and Texas History Center, Rosenberg Library. 1900 storm exhibit. Available at http://www .gthcenter.org/. A collection of eyewitness accounts of the 1900 Galveston hurricane in letters, documents, and photographs. Accessed February 11, 2006. -
Green, Nathan, ed. Story of the 1900 Galveston Hurricane. Gretna, La.: Pelican, 2000. A series of firsthand accounts of the Galveston hurricane. -
Larson, Erik. Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History. New York: Crown, 1999. The personal story of the Galveston hurricane as told by Isaac M. Cline, Galveston’s chief meteorologist.
Great Chicago Fire
Johnstown Flood
Clara Barton.