Galvaston 1900 Hurrican was not a Disaster

Waters rose at about 15 inches per hour. By 9:30 p.m. the water in the Tremont Hotel’s lobby covered the desk and the pages of the register. Buildings, such as the Ritter Building, gave way, killing people huddled inside “like rats in traps.” The waters suddenly gave way at 1:45 a.m. Sunday and within 20 minutes had gone down to two feet. By morning, the streets were devoid of flood water. Not until Sunday dawned did survivors begin to realize the scope of the catastrophe. On Monday, September 10, 1906, the storm had cleared even more revealing devastation.

Five blocks on the Gulf beach side of the city had been swept of everything, the timbers and debris shoved up by turbulent waters to create a wall 30 to 40 feet high on Sixth street. On the bay side, wharves and grain elevators were completely destroyed and big ships lay strewn about. Dead bodies were everywhere, approximately 6,000 in all. Coffins and caskets from one of the cemeteries at Galveston were being fished out of the water.

First, most or all of the community-built structures in Galveston were heavily damaged, which made it impossible for displaced victims to seek shelter with nearby relatives and friends, as they typically did in disaster situations. In addition, most of the facilities and operational bases of most emergency organizations were themselves hit, making them inoperable. The following major city structures were demolished: the beach barracks housing 100 soldiers, the Galveston News office, the Union Depot, Moody Bank building, Tremont Hotel engine house, the power-house of the street railway company, Sealy hospital, the Sisters’ Orphan Hospital, and St. Mary’s Infirmary (including most patients and staff), Ball High School and the Rosenberg School buildings, three railroad bridges and the county bridge across to the mainland, the Pat O’Keefe beach resort, the great bathing pavilion known as the Pagoda, the big pleasure resort known as the Olympia, and Murdoch’s bathhouse.

There was a great show about this on the history channel a few years back. They didn't know what to do with all the dead there were so many, so they tried to sink them in the ocean. Alas, they did it incorrectly, and all the rotting dead friends, neighbors and loved ones came washing back in.

The accounts from the few survivors were like listening to nightmares come real. I don't think people can even fathom something this terrible unless they hear the actual accounts of how people had their children ripped from their arms from the waters, watched their spouses and children go under and not come back up, their despair as they were washed away from their families in the cold waters in the dark of night with the winds howling and the debris crashing all around them. And these survivors were the lucky ones who had 3 story houses I think it was. They were able to ride out most of it up in their attics until the storm and debris simply destroyed the supporting walls of their homes.

Bravado kicks in and fools die. Back then they had no warning system. But there's really no excuse these days for fools who think they can somehow best mother nature.