Isaac Monroe Cline was one of the era’s new scientists who believed he knew everything there was to be known about the motions of clouds and the behavior of storms. Isaac was the chief of the United States Weather Service bureau in Galveston at this time. The idea of a hurricane destroying the city of Galveston baffled him. As rain started to fall in the city with a higher intensity than normal, people were reassured by Isaac’s beliefs. He was completely wrong.
Galveston which is located on Galveston Island is a twenty-nine mile strip of land estimated about two miles off the coast of Texas. With the miles of beaches and nice weather it was a popular resort and seemed to be headed in the direction to become the New York City of the Gulf Coast. It had also become a commercial port which was thriving. On September 8th, 1900 this changed. Many vacationers on this day did not pay attention to the warnings let out by the United States Weather Bureau to get to higher ground. Little did they know a category four hurricane was about to strike the city becoming the nation’s deadliest natural disaster still to this day. About six to eight thousand people lost their lives out of about thirty-six thousand total on the island. (about 20%) In comparison these deaths were greater than the combined of the Johnstown Flood and San Francisco Earthquake.
Bussert 3
Galveston was only eight to nine feet above sea level and as the waters began rising nobody payed
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
In the history of the United States of America, Hurricane Katrina was known as one of the worst hurricanes in the world. The hurricane was a combination of tropical waters and gushing winds. It was the vicious hurricane that caused severe damage to the citizens of the United States of America. The amazing city known for its southern style, Cajun cuisines, jazz music and its celebration of Mardi Gras will never be the same. New Orleans, Louisiana was changed forever in August 2005 when this category five hurricane left the city devastated. The catastrophic storm tore through the city of New Orleans and surrounding areas destroying everything in its path and killing hundreds of people.
Isaac’s Storm, is a tale of self- confidence. This Hurricane in 1900 in Galveston was the worst and deadliest hurricane this country has ever seen. About 6,000 people lost their lives and among those who died was Isaac Cline’s wife. I can tell how guilty he must have felt and how horrific this time was for Cline, especially because he thought a massive storm could never devastate his amazing city. The horrific events of what happened in Galveston is only partially told in this book. Erik Larson’s use of Cline’s own letters and reports show Cline’s own self confidence or pride and falsifies facts that Cline was the hero he believed himself to be after the Storm surfaced. Isaac's Storm clearly shows what can happen when human arrogance takes priority over anything else.
“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.
The devastating and deeply rooted traumatic effects of Hurricane Katrina will live in the psyches of the people of New Orleans and beyond for generations to come. Katrina was the largest and third strongest hurricane to make landfall in the United States barreling in as a Category 5 with up to 175 mile-per-hour winds and a 20-ft storm surge that would create a humanitarian emergency with the likes never before seen in the United States. This hurricane caused unimaginable death, destruction, and displacement, leaving a known death toll of 1,836 and an unknown number thought to be washed out to sea. The real truth is we will never know exactly how many people lost their lives during Hurricane Katrina.
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
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, Texas is located 50 miles southeast of Houston. It is known as a barrier island on the Texas Gulf Coast of the United States. The city Galveston, Texas was the home of around 37,000 residents in the early 1900’s. This island grew from being a small settlement into one of the wealthiest cities in the country. It was normal for people to visit Galveston, Texas for it was known as a "tourist attraction". There was always the idea of building a seawall to protect Galveston from future hurricanes but it was never built. Although many hurricanes had hit the city several times in the past (before 1900) no one would have thought that a hurricane that would
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
Harvey known as an apocalyptic storm for many Houstonian’s who have described the scenery and event for that weekend. Many homes, businesses, and schools destroyed causing it to be one of the biggest recovery mission in the nation. A big flare of controversy between the government and the state happened as well. Even with many homes lost and so much sadness spread across south Texas and Houston many texans came together as one.
The first mini project I began to work on was taking pictures of Galveston and agricultural areas of Texas and learning about the history of both. While researching about Galveston I learned that the Karankawa Indians used Galveston for hunting and fishing. Jose de Evia charted the Texas coast in 1785 and named Galveston Bay in honor of Bernando di Galvez, the viceroy of Mexico. In 1816 Louis Aury established a naval base at the harbor to support the revolution in Mexico. Up until the Civil War the port in Galveston was used for the Texas navy. In 1860 a bridge was built to the island resulting in strengthening Houston and Galveston together. Galveston had the first structure, the Galveston Pavilion, to have
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.