Galveston Research Papers

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.

New Orleans on the other hand is usually seen as a prime example of the shortcomings of Federal aid agencies in disaster relief and the subsequent recovery was much slower and costly, requiring Billions in assistance. At first it may seem like this is a clear cut case of the Federal government being and expensive failure and local government thriving when left alone but I would argue that the cities were facing vastly different circumstances during each of their natural disasters and that comparing them isn't so clear cut. First take into consideration the population difference between the two. New Orleans had well over 10 times the population of 1900 Galveston, with over 10 times the amount of people being effected by the storm it is not surprise that responding to the needs of that many people during a natural disaster would be far more costly to deal with than with the much smaller population in Galveston. The type of government Galveston created after the disaster also work so well in part do to the number of people that it was governing. A city of less than thirty thousand people is very small by today's standards, that's around the number of people Galveston would have had after the storm, it is my believe one reason that the reason the government of the

Meanwhile tornadoes are dramatically different from hurricanes. Hurricanes form over vast stretches of water, and the warmer the water the more the potentially deadly the hurricane will be. The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 ""¦was responsible for at least 8000 deaths" (Blake, et al, 2011). Hurricanes develop in tropical oceans and move westward in the direction of the southern and eastern United States. Tornadoes also affected by the jet stream form over land, not over water, and although they can be up to a mile wide, they are generally a quarter of a mile wide. Hurricanes are sometimes several hundred miles wide which makes them a far

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

Economic Impact Industries were forced to move to Houston (“Martinez”). This caused a loss on huge sources of money for Galveston that otherwise would have been able to give Galveston a little bit of recovery. Individual losses plus public property losses such as paving, water works, schools, hospitals, and churches totaled to around, if not over, 30 million (“Resources”). Most of these losses would have had to been rebuilt immediately to keep the future of the younger people in the correct road to success. Because of all of the losses in the hurricane, Galveston never recovered economically (“Martinez”). Galveston is still at a large loss of money that it will probably never recover in our lifetimes. “The Texas Legislature agreed to a tax and sale of bonds to pay for raising the elevation of the city” (“Martinez”). Using the money raised from this tax, a 3 mile long seawall was built to protect the city from future floods

    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

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)

Galveston was the leading port in the state of Texas and had a population of about 37,000 people during the 1900. Being a city on the gulf coast, getting hit by a hurricane was expected. Galveston has been hit with many hurricanes before but one particular hurricane almost wiped out the whole city. On September 8th, 1900, a potent hurricane producing wind up to 120 miles per hour and flooded the city with about 15 feet of water made landfall. The aftermath of the hurricane was horrific, it broke the city down to rubbles and a few thousands of people lost their lives. The city had a choice of either being wiped off the map from the hurricane’s damage or to start the rebuild process as soon as possible. Galveston chose to unite as one and

It was one fairly sunny day in Houston Texas It started to get windy then it started to rain. All of a sudden it started to storm hard then the wind got stronger all of a sudden it started pouring people that were watching the news had alarms going off. And then the storm sirens started to go then the people of houston knew they were in trouble now people and families were scared the storm was horrible the people of houston knew it was a hurricane. The storm lasted around five hours.

Not only was was the grade of the entire city raised, but a 50 ft. seawall was built to protect it. Within a decade, five hundred city blocks had been raised with sand from the Galveston ship channel. These new improvements later proved to be up to standard in 1915 when a Category three hurricane made landfall in Galveston. This Hurricane had winds up to 193 mph, making it a repeat of the Hurricane of 1900, although with new city improvements, it passed without devastation. But what effects did this hurricane have on the residents in 1900, and today's current residents?

You wake up this morning get out bed trying to decide what to wear today. You check the weather app on your phone and see that it will be sunny and warm outside with zero chance of rain. You throw on your flip flops and shorts and head outside to begin your day. Weather can be quite predictable in this day and age. High tech technology and decades of weather knowledge have allowed us to predict the weather with great accuracy, but it was not always this way. Isaac Cline, a meteorologist for the U.S. Weather Bureau failed to understand what was happening in Galveston before it was too late. On September 8, 1900, no one was ready for what was about to happen to this prosperous port city. A monster hurricane swept in and destroyed the city killing

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. 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

on the evening of september 8th, 1900 the most grand city in texas was ruined by a category 4 hurricane. in 1900 galveston island had a prosperous sea port bringing in tourists and many kinds of commercial goods. because of the many beaches and warm weather, galveston was growing in hopes of being like New York City. although galveston never fully recuperated from "the storm" of 1900, they worked to prevent the damage of many hurricanes that would come in the future.

Millions were made homeless by the huge waves that swept houses and cars away. It was estimated that the costs to repair all damage would be at approximately $5 billion.

The Great Hurricane of 1938, or known to many as the Long Island Express, was known as one of the most disastrous hurricanes to hit New England. It wasn’t the high winds, heavy rain, and high waves/storm surge that gave this hurricane its title in history. The Great Hurricane had a fourth deadly weapon; the element of surprise. It was the beginning of September, a time where many packed up their summer clothes, boarded up their houses, and left to return back to the real world leaving their summer homes behind. When symptoms of a storm approached New England, many locals convinced themselves and others that it was just the normal “line storm” which occasionally comes in September. It wasn’t until Sept 21 that people realized the so-called