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Despite advances in
weather forecasting ...
Hurricanes pack a deadly punch City
of Galveston recalls disaster of 1900 By Eric
Shackle
If a rapidly intensifying major hurricane ever strikes an unprepared
heavily populated coastal area, it might kill more people than the 8,000 to
12,000 who died after the Texas island city of Galveston and the surrounding
upper Texas coast was devastated 100 years ago, hurricane expert Lew Fincher
believes.
"There is still a very real threat to life along our coasts from
hurricanes," says Fincher. He is President of the Houston chapter of the
American Meteorological Society, and specializes in hurricane history,
preparedness and mitigation.
"I feel, as do others, that the 1900 storm's death toll could very easily
be topped if a rapidly intensifying hurricane came ashore on a highly
populated area that had started evacuation procedures too late," he says.
"Many people would be trapped on the road in their cars and in shelters
that failed to stand up to the forces of a major hurricane. Mark my
words!"
Storm surge
The Galveston hurricane, which reached its peak on September 8, 1900, was the deadliest
natural disaster in US history. On September 8 2000 Galvestonians grimly
recalled the storm which killed at least 6000 people - a quarter of the city's
inhabitants - and left 5000 others battered and bruised. A storm surge
inundated the city, sweeping away nearly half its houses, and reducing 1000
more to rubble. As the storm moved inland, the death toll rose to at least
8000. Fincher believes the total could have been as high as 12,000.
"No one knows for sure how many perished as so many were washed out to
sea or ashore along the upper Texas coast, which wasn't heavily
inhabited," says Fincher. "Two days after Galveston was devastated,
barges loaded with more than 700 bodies were taken 18 miles out into the Gulf
and buried at sea. Many of these floated back and washed ashore along the
beach shore. Since it became almost impossible to move the decaying bodies,
they were then burned in hundreds of funeral pyres that were kept going for
many weeks."
In a 1979 issue of the U.S.
Weatherwise magazine (no connection with this web site),
Patrick Hughes wrote: "The Galveston hurricane of 1900 killed more
Americans than the legendary Chicago Fire, San Francisco Earthquake, and
Johnstown Flood combined, yet today it is all but forgotten."
Funeral pyres
Hughes vividly described the horror scene confronting the survivors the day
after the hurricane had struck: "Many bodies and many of the living were
naked or near-naked, their clothes ripped off by protruding nails, jagged
pieces of wood, broken glass, and flying debris. Hundreds of whole families
had perished; almost every family had lost at least one member. As many as
10,000 survivors were homeless. Galveston Bay was clogged with human bodies,
and the corpses of cows, horses, chickens, and dogs were everywhere.
"Makeshift morgues were jammed with corpses. The weather was hot, and the
health of the living demanded immediate action .... Galveston became a city of
funeral pyres. A dark pall of smoke hung over the island for weeks as the grim
task continued."
This year, Galveston was a city in mourning. "The storm haunts us. It's
the shadow in our hearts that brings us together," Dolph Tillotson,
president and publisher of The Daily News, wrote in a special
centennial issue. "So let's sing a hymn for the dead and drink a toast to
the living, and let's pray that tomorrow Galveston will be just as brave and
stubborn."
One of Texas' most famous sons, CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather. who gained
his big break reporting Hurricane Carla which struck Texas in 1961, with a
loss of 46 lives, was keynote speaker at a memorial service. Galveston
Historical Foundation distributed 330 special plaques for some of the
buildings that have survived the 1900 storm.
Fifteen years after the 1900 disaster, on August 16, 1915, Galveston was again
hit by a large and violent storm. Although a 17-foot high sea wall had
been built after the 1900 hurricane, storm tides 12 feet above normal flooded
the business district to a depth of six feet. This time, 275 people lost their
lives from a combination of high water and strong winds.
Since 1900, hurricanes striking the United States bordering the Gulf of Mexico
have killed more than 9,000 people and caused more than $30 billion damage.
But today, the chances of being killed by a hurricane have been dramatically
reduced. Improved communications, warning systems, emergency
preparedness, and forecast techniques and equipment have resulted in increased
lead times for warnings, more accurate forecasts of events, greater public
awareness, and more reliable communications.
Did you know?
Hurricanes are designated in five categories according to the
Saffir/Simpson Scale.
Category 1: 74-95 mph winds.
Category 2: 96-110 mph winds.
Category 3: 111-130 mph winds.
Category 4: 131-155 mph winds.
Category 5: winds greater than 155 mph.
No one knows the exact velocity of the 1900 storm, though some
believe sustained winds were about 130-140 mph, placing it in Category 4.
The instruments blew away at 85mph.
Eric Shackle
is a retired journalist now living on the central coast of New South Wales. He
spends much of his spare time surfing the Internet and writing about it. His
articles have been published by leading newspapers including the New York
Times, the Toronto Globe and Mail, the Sydney Morning Herald and, in
Singapore, The Straits Times.
Copyright © 2000. Eric
Shackle.
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