1900 Galveston Hurricane:
Part 2 – Disaster Waiting to Happen
Looking back, meteorologists say turn-of-the-century Galveston was a disaster waiting to happen. The lively seaside village resort was the state's wealthiest city, but it was built on a low-lying barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico smack in the path of hurricanes. Islanders seemed to ignore the existence of danger.
"The island was completely unprotected at that time. There was no sea wall," said John Hope, Tropical Weather Expert at The Weather Channel.
The aftermath of the 1900 Galveston Hurricane instantly shattered that sense of complacency. The nightmare of shrieking winds and churning water caused a vast sea of rubble that amounted to nearly $20 million in damage (approximately $382 million in 1998 dollars).
"If that hurricane hit today the cost of damage would be huge, not just because the cost of living has gone up, but because of the huge population and building increases over the past century," said Dr. Steve Lyons, Tropical Weather Expert at The Weather Channel.
Thousands of bodies washed up along the shore. Others floated miles out to sea, where sailors reportedly gagged from the overwhelming decay. Bodies continued to surface until February of the next year.
Laura Chapin's great-grandmother was one of the few survivors.
"She was nine when the storm hit, and her sister Louise was about 5 years older. Their house was flooded, but they survived," said Chapin. "But they weren't allowed to go down to the beach because of all the bodies washing up."
The death toll was unlike anything ever witnessed in the United States. The hurricane killed all but three children at Galveston's St. Mary's Orphanage. People who had huddled inside churches to wait out the hurricane died as the buildings collapsed on top of them. The hurricane obliterated some 3,600 houses, nearly half the city.
The most traumatic problem faced by the city was disposal of the dead. Fearing an outbreak of the plague, bodies were laid to rest at sea. But many floated back to the island on "waves like hearses," one survivor recounted. Even weighing them down didn't work. City leaders eventually turned to cremation.
