Southern History Book of the Month: The Great Galveston Disaster
By Mary Anne Ellis, Southern History Department, Central Library
The Great Galveston Disaster
Paul Lester
With an introduction by Richard Spillane
As we enter the most active period of hurricane season, weather services have stepped up advisories to prepare for stronger storms, be aware of evacuation routes, and take threatening weather seriously. With our current notification tools and computer models, we can see a hurricane forming far in advance. But imagine yourself as a resident of Galveston, Texas, in September of 1900, when there was no Weather Channel, no radar, no James Spann or Jim Cantore. With hardly any warning or time to prepare, the residents of Galveston were engulfed by a storm that holds the record as the worst natural disaster in U.S. history. There have been many books about the hurricane, but few have the immediacy of The Great Galveston Disaster, which was published in 1900 shortly after the storm and contains numerous eyewitness accounts and photographs.
The late Victorian character of the book can be seen right away on the title page, which refers to “Thrilling Tales of Heroic Deeds; Panic-Stricken Multitudes and Heart-Rending Scenes of Agony, Etc.” But thrills can also be thrills of horror, and any temptation to smile over florid Victorian verbiage is wiped out by actually reading about the horrors, agonies, and dreadful deaths. In his introduction, Spillane dispels the myth that the storm appeared without warning:
If Spillane’s introduction awes with its not so “serious” Before picture of Galveston, the rest of the book is an appalling survey of the After. Paul Lester takes up the narrative by plunging us right away into chapter headings like “Galveston Almost Totally Destroyed by Winds and Waves” and “Thousands Swept to Instant Death.” It is hard for us now to comprehend just how quickly the Galveston storm became a dire emergency that even then was being called “The Worst Hurricane Ever Known.” Photographs reveal ships overturned, driven aground, or broken into pieces. Houses were reduced to rubble, turned upside down, swept into the ocean. Miles of shoreline were choked by floating wreckage. One man on duty at a nearby fort was carried out to sea and somehow survived five days, but he is the exception rather than the rule; people who were caught on shore by the storm surge “will never be accounted for” and probably numbered in the hundreds. Buildings were torn from their foundations. The bodies of men and women were found holding so tightly to the bodies of their children that they could not be separated, even in death. Add to these scenes of destruction the inevitable aftermath of fire, famine, looters, and threat of disease outbreaks and the story becomes more nightmarish page by page.
However, there are also scenes of heroism and compassion. One photograph shows a soup kitchen serving the injured and homeless. Clara Barton, president of the American Red Cross, telegraphed the Governor of Texas: “Do you need the Red Cross in Texas? We are ready.”
A longshoreman named Hughes carried bodies to a temporary morgue. Appeals for money and relief supplies were met with generous outpourings of funds in the thousands of dollars. As in any disaster of this kind, human nature—both good and evil—is on full contradictory display.
There is no way we will ever know the full loss of life or amount of property damage from the Galveston hurricane; the introductory material cites that “estimates range from $25,000, 000 to $50,000,000” in property damage and this is an estimate from the year 1900, immediately after the event; the cost today would undoubtedly be far higher. The death toll is generally cited as between six thousand and twelve thousand, since the same hurricane system caused fatalities outside of Texas. However, the Galveston Hurricane helped usher in the era of up-to-the-minute weather forecasting and attempts to predict the formation and course of dangerous storms.
Take advantage of one of the few good things to come out of that disaster. Prepare. Be safe.
For further information:
National Hurricane Center
National Weather Service
The 1900 Storm
National Public Radio: “The Tempest at Galveston”
Newspapers.com Accounts of Galveston Hurricane
“1900 Hurricane Changed Galveston—and Forecasting”
Paul Lester
With an introduction by Richard Spillane
As we enter the most active period of hurricane season, weather services have stepped up advisories to prepare for stronger storms, be aware of evacuation routes, and take threatening weather seriously. With our current notification tools and computer models, we can see a hurricane forming far in advance. But imagine yourself as a resident of Galveston, Texas, in September of 1900, when there was no Weather Channel, no radar, no James Spann or Jim Cantore. With hardly any warning or time to prepare, the residents of Galveston were engulfed by a storm that holds the record as the worst natural disaster in U.S. history. There have been many books about the hurricane, but few have the immediacy of The Great Galveston Disaster, which was published in 1900 shortly after the storm and contains numerous eyewitness accounts and photographs.
The late Victorian character of the book can be seen right away on the title page, which refers to “Thrilling Tales of Heroic Deeds; Panic-Stricken Multitudes and Heart-Rending Scenes of Agony, Etc.” But thrills can also be thrills of horror, and any temptation to smile over florid Victorian verbiage is wiped out by actually reading about the horrors, agonies, and dreadful deaths. In his introduction, Spillane dispels the myth that the storm appeared without warning:
The same storm, less ferocious perhaps, had swept along the South Atlantic coast several days before . . . but no one expected such a tempest as was destined to devastate the city . . . what height the winds reached will never be known. The wind gauge at the weather bureau recorded an average of 84 miles an hour for five consecutive minutes, and then the instruments were carried away. That was before the storm had become really serious. (Emphasis added)
If Spillane’s introduction awes with its not so “serious” Before picture of Galveston, the rest of the book is an appalling survey of the After. Paul Lester takes up the narrative by plunging us right away into chapter headings like “Galveston Almost Totally Destroyed by Winds and Waves” and “Thousands Swept to Instant Death.” It is hard for us now to comprehend just how quickly the Galveston storm became a dire emergency that even then was being called “The Worst Hurricane Ever Known.” Photographs reveal ships overturned, driven aground, or broken into pieces. Houses were reduced to rubble, turned upside down, swept into the ocean. Miles of shoreline were choked by floating wreckage. One man on duty at a nearby fort was carried out to sea and somehow survived five days, but he is the exception rather than the rule; people who were caught on shore by the storm surge “will never be accounted for” and probably numbered in the hundreds. Buildings were torn from their foundations. The bodies of men and women were found holding so tightly to the bodies of their children that they could not be separated, even in death. Add to these scenes of destruction the inevitable aftermath of fire, famine, looters, and threat of disease outbreaks and the story becomes more nightmarish page by page.
 |
| Photo of Richard Spillane, newspaper editor and Associated Press correspondent, who was chosen by the mayor of Galveston to report on the aftermath of the hurricane; and the sensational title page that hints of the hurricane horror stories inside |
However, there are also scenes of heroism and compassion. One photograph shows a soup kitchen serving the injured and homeless. Clara Barton, president of the American Red Cross, telegraphed the Governor of Texas: “Do you need the Red Cross in Texas? We are ready.”
A longshoreman named Hughes carried bodies to a temporary morgue. Appeals for money and relief supplies were met with generous outpourings of funds in the thousands of dollars. As in any disaster of this kind, human nature—both good and evil—is on full contradictory display.
There is no way we will ever know the full loss of life or amount of property damage from the Galveston hurricane; the introductory material cites that “estimates range from $25,000, 000 to $50,000,000” in property damage and this is an estimate from the year 1900, immediately after the event; the cost today would undoubtedly be far higher. The death toll is generally cited as between six thousand and twelve thousand, since the same hurricane system caused fatalities outside of Texas. However, the Galveston Hurricane helped usher in the era of up-to-the-minute weather forecasting and attempts to predict the formation and course of dangerous storms.
Take advantage of one of the few good things to come out of that disaster. Prepare. Be safe.
For further information:
National Hurricane Center
National Weather Service
The 1900 Storm
National Public Radio: “The Tempest at Galveston”
Newspapers.com Accounts of Galveston Hurricane
“1900 Hurricane Changed Galveston—and Forecasting”
Comments