Galveston and the 1900 Storm In Galveston, Texas in the year 1900, a massive storm destroyed almost the entire town and killed many innocent people. It is considered the worst natural disaster to have ever struck American soil, although some modernists would argue it is second to Hurricane Katrina. In the book Galveston and the 1900 Storm, authors Patricia Bixel and Elizabeth Turner endeavor to explain and analyze this event. Besides a basic description, the book focuses on what happened after the Hurricane when a flourishing community lost a sixth of its population and tried to rebuild from the devastation. On September 8th of 1900, an enormous and horrifying hurricane landed on the shore of Galveston. In a few hours, most of the city's structures were destroyed and an estimated 6,000 people lost their lives in the storm or the environmental aftermath. This is a conservative estimate. Some historians put the death toll at 8,000; others as high as 12,000. Besides a traumatic event in American history, the Galveston Hurricane was also an early indicator to the American citizens how its people and how its government could react in the wake of devastating tragedy. Before the hurricane, Galveston was a prospering city of approximately 37,000 citizens. The reason why Galveston had achieved such financial prowess was because of its prime location as a trade port in the Gulf of Mexico. A few days before the hurricane, the United States Weather Bureau informed the city fathers
The Washington Times opens with a statement describing the path of Hurricane Katrina and also shares the known death toll. This article gives the audience more of a general overview of the first known effects of the hurricane, without having too many newly revealed facts. The article has quotes from the governors of Mississippi, which gives the reader a feeling that
On Friday evening, September 7, 1900, many of the 37,000 residents of Galveston, Texas, were settling down to dinner, few if any of them concerned about the steady 15 mph northerly wind rattling their windows. Within 48 hours, at least 8,000 of the townspeople would be dead, victims of the single worst natural disaster in U.S. history. Relatively few people are aware that the deadliest natural disaster in the United States was the hurricane that struck Galveston Island on September 8, 1900. One of the best resources that can be found to help fully understand the significance of this storm is Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson.
The 1900 Hurricane in Galveston destroyed a majority of the towns infrastructure and killed a significant amount of the population. One of the main reasons behind the level of devastation was do to the fact that the city was not at all prepared to face a storm as large as the one that hit in 1900, the city had a very low elevation with its highest point being only 9 feet above the sea level, and had very little if any means of protection from Hurricanes(1.). By 1900 Galveston had already been hit with several destructive storms in the past but they were not severe enough for the citizens of Galveston to start making more efforts to curb the potential damage a larger storm could have in the future and thus do to something on a
“Human bodies bobbed facedown in the water, bumping against the boat” (“Anderson vii”). By September 7, 1900, Galveston was the 4th largest city in Texas (“Galveston”). It was a growing and flourishing port city of 37,000 (resources); and one of the wealthiest cities in the country (“Galveston”). On September 8, 1900 a powerful hurricane slammed into Galveston (“Galveston”). Its’ highest wind speed recorded before the anemometer blew away was 100 mph, but the speeds were estimated as high as 135 mph (“Galveston”). Over 3,600 buildings were destroyed in the hurricane causing 30,000 people to be homeless (“Galveston”). A 15-foot storm surge engulfed the entire island leaving the highest point of the island just over 8 feet above sea level (“Galveston”). Evacuation was almost impossible (“Galveston”). At first their estimation of
In many ways people’s overconfidence was very costly for Galvestonians due to the fact that lack of attention, over confidence and hypocrisy from their authorities as well as the narrator himself weren’t taking seriously the warnings from the Cuban authorities as the book Isaac’s Storm suggests in page 19-20 “The bureau’s men in Cuba said the storm was nothing to worry about; Cuba’s own weather observers, who had pioneered hurricane detection disagreed.” And also the narrator himself got warned by his brother on how the wind has been irregularly high as it points out in page 19-21”It was capable of measuring velocities as high as one hundred miles an hour, but conditions had never come close to testing capacity, nor did any rational soul believe
The society of Galveston suffered greatly after the hurricane in both good and bad ways. The people of Galveston lost almost everything they had; everything was nearly ruined. As stated by Ida Smith Austin, Mov. 6, 1900, during the storm planks and debris were thrown around in the air and water flooded homes. Many survivors of the storm lost almost everything they had, this formed
Hurricane Katrina was a devastating disaster that has affected many people in New Orleans. The communication broke down hours after Katrina because of the unexpected fast winds and floods that broke down “3 million phone lines and 1,000 cellular towers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.”( Joch ). Because of the millions of phone lines that were broken down, contacting the government for help was difficult hours after hurricane Katrina. Not only that, the people of New Orleans underestimated the power of Hurricane Katrina causing many to be “ stranded with no food or water” (Narrator, “The Storm”,PBS).
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast at daybreak, “pummeling a region that included the fabled city of New Orleans and heaping damage on neighboring Mississippi. In all, more than 1,700 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of others displaced.” (Laforet, New York Times)
In the article “For Houston’s Homeless, a Terrifying Night Under Siege by Hurricane Harvey” by Julie Turkewitz, the main focus is the harsh reality of a hurricane this string for those who are homeless in Houston. First, Turkewitz sets the harsh reality by telling the readers about Roy Joe Cox- a homeless man in Houston- who is preparing to cope for the Hurricane with what little he has. She then builds her claim by writing about what the effects of Hurricane Harvey are, and what officials are expecting to happen. Next, Turkewitz suggests that any homeless person who is in Houston at this time should seek shelter at the available locations. Finally, she brings the harsh and sad reality for the homeless men and women in Houston by quoting Roy Joe Cox as he asks, “I’ve never experienced a hurricane. Is it going to rain out that bad? Is it going to flood me out? I mean, I don’t want to die over a hurricane . . . I’d rather not die.” (Turkewitz, 2017).
On the morning of August Twenty-ninth, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region. The storm brought the water to about twenty feet high, swallowing eighty percent of the New Orleans city immediately. The flood and torrential rainstorm wreaked havoc and forced millions of people evacuate from the city. According to the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, Katrina caused approximately one hundred and eight billion dollars in damage. Hurricane Katrina was one of the most destructive disasters have ever occurred in the United States, but it also revealed a catastrophic government at all levels’ failure in responding to the contingency.
Ships were left stranded and wrecked miles away from moorings. Thousands of homes were washed away into the sea. Approximately 3,600 buildings were destroyed. Everything that was destroyed was bulldozed 15 blocks from the beach. The damage cost was 20 million (700 million today). It was the third costliest hurricane in U.S. history. 8,000-12,000 of the 37,000 people that lived in Galveston, Texas died, which was 20% of the population that was lost. From the remaining survivors, 30,000 were left
“Change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end,” said Robin Sharman. Advancements and progress that came from innovational minds took time and there were many obstacles and hardships. During the 1900s the world gave birth of the bright minds of the Wright Brothers that gave the world’s first successful airplane, also the modifications of the corset gave way to new fashion styles and trends and finally the tragic Galveston Hurricane paved the pathway of new mechanics and progressive ideas. Before, the thought of people being in the air and flying seemed impossible and dangerous, but the 1900s was a decade of advancement and many innovative minds such as Orville and Wilbur Wright, tried to build a “flying machine”. Unlike
It is pretty poignant, yet honest to say that the hurricane Katrina has long derived an almost obsessional attention from Natasha writer. In “Beyond Katrina: A meditation of the Mississippi Gulf Coast”, Tretheway has purposely pictured the devastation scenario from witnesses’ narratives; hence her story could speak for many stories of people who are less visible, whom we cannot see struggling against the aftermath - the stories we may not know about how tenacious the return of Gulf Coast communities was from those tremendous sufferings they miserably faced up to.
Hurricane Katrina resulted in massive loss of life and billions of dollars in property damage. There are many lessons worth learning from this event. Finger pointing started before the event was over. Most of the focus on Hurricane Katrina was on its impact on New Orleans; however, the storm ravaged a much wider area than that. This paper will briefly summarize the event, the impact on the city of New Orleans and the lessons learned to ensure preparedness today.
A recent disaster, Hurricane Harvey, is known to be “the third most powerful on the Saffir-Simpson scale” (O 'BrienReuters 1). The storm has crippled Houston and demolished the smaller communities in the surrounding area. Houston, which has a massive