Galveston Hurricane: America's Deadliest Natural Disaster

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 Texas City disaster took place on April 16th, 1947, with the detonation of 2300 tons of ammonium nitrate, near the Texas City docks. The Grandcamp was set to embark on an assigned trip to Europe to help in the reconstruction of various countries in the aftermath of the Second World War. The ships were loaded with 32.5 % ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which is a high explosive used in military and mining operations. The result of which was a DDT which is a deflagration to detonation causing a massive explosion leading to many deaths, destroyed homes, and the surroundings being ruined. The leading causes of this horrific tragedy were poor transportation and storing laws of ammonium nitrate which was a main component in the disaster, if these two components had have been handled with more care the lives of innocent people would not have been lost.

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

On August 29th, 2005 Hurricane Katrina caused catastrophic damage and flooding in Mississippi, Louisiana, New Orleans and areas in between. It destructed the lives and homes of thousands of people, with a total of 1,883 fatalities (Hurricane Katrina Statistics Fast Facts, 2015). Hurricane Katrina left many homeless and hospitals unprepared for the challenges posed to the healthcare system as a whole. Some of these challenges included gaining access to healthcare facilities, providing expedited care to those most in need, and preventing spread of disease that commonly occurs during natural disasters. Many facilities did not evacuate in time and many were left stranded in flooded waters as patients conditions worsened and access to essential medications and treatments became limited.

“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

In the turn of the new century, the people of Galveston were faced with a grim reminder. The event that destroyed the small island of Galveston, the Galveston Hurricane, had many social, political, and economic impacts that made this storm life-changing. The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 improved Texas for the better and helped Galveston grow stronger as a city.

At the hurricane's first landfall near the northeastern tip of the Yucatán Peninsula, little information was documented on the storm's impacts.[3] However, as the storm approached the Texas coast, widespread evacuations took place, including the evacuation of roughly 50,000 people from Galveston alone. Upon making landfall, the hurricane caused extensive damage in coastal regions. In Matagorda, storm surge

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

The Hurricane of 1900, also known as the Great Galveston Hurricane made landfall on September 8, 1900 in Galveston, Texas in the United States. It had estimated winds of 145 miles per hour at landfall, making it a Category 4 storm on the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale. By the end of the 19th century, Galveston had a rapidly growing population, with around 40,000 residents, including Dr. Isaac Monroe Cline, living within the city limits. It was the largest city in texas at the time, and had become a major port city.

I believe people to be naturally good to others, because there is more kind-hearted people more than cold-hearted people in this world. In this world you will see a handful of people helping and giving to others no matter the situation. The percentage of evil and cruel people is a very low percentage. After everything people all over Texas is coming together, and it shows the good in people that we thought did not have a good heart.

On the eighth of September, 1900, a nameless hurricane crept up the wall of the Gulf of Mexico and ambushed the city of Galveston, Texas. Within only a few minutes, a massive storm surge rose up and gulped the tourist trap town in water. Entire steel structures were folded in on themselves and fish and ships alike were stranded. Streets, dammed from the rubble of surround-ing structures, were desperately being sorted through to try and find survivors or the bodies of the dead. But there seemed to be a lack of public interest to what is still regarded as the largest and deadliest Hurricane to ever strike ("The Largest and Deadliest Hurricane to Hit the United States." The Largest and Deadliest Hurricane to Hit the United States. N.p., n.d. Web.

Hurricanes are among the costliest and the most destructive of natural disasters. Since 1995, the United States has witnessed more intense activities by hurricanes with Mobile County in Alabama experiencing hurricane Ivan and hurricane Dennis in 2004 and 2005 (Link, 2010). In 2005, Hurricane Katrina was the costliest and one of the deadliest hurricanes to have hit the United States and was rated category three in Mobile County (Marchi, 2007). The response to the disaster was poor owing to the lack of proper disaster preparedness as

Hurricane Katrina pounded the Gulf Coast with tremendous force at daybreak, August 29, 2005, severely punishing regions that included the city of New Orleans and its neighboring state Mississippi. Resulting in a total of just over 1700 people killed, and hundreds of thousands missing. When we think of Hurricane Katrina stories, we think of stories that were published by the media such as, “Packing 145-mile-an-hour winds as it made landfall, the category 3 storm left more than a million people in three states without power and submerged highways even hundreds of miles from its center. The hurricane's storm surge a 29-foot wall of water pushed ashore when the hurricane struck the Gulf Coast was the highest ever measured in the United States.