It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 10:59 pm



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 1 post ] 
 The 1900 Galveston Hurricane 
Author Message
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2009 8:59 am
Posts: 6532
Location: Friendswood, TX
Post The 1900 Galveston Hurricane
http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/events/1900hurr.htm

On September 8, 1900, a killer hurricane struck the Texas coastal city of Galveston. This hurricane would become the greatest natural disaster, by number of deaths, in United States history: 8,000 by accepted figures, perhaps as many as 12,000. Of that total, 6,000 perished in Galveston alone. The tragedy killed more Americans than any other natural disaster, indeed, more than the legendary Johnstown Flood, the San Francisco Earthquake, the 1938 New England Hurricane and the Great Chicago Fire combined.

snip

The Galveston Hurricane, however, had other ideas. Rather than follow the more likely path which would recurve back toward the Atlantic, it continued on its west-northwest course. As it moved into the Gulf of Mexico, it gave gale force winds to Tampa on Florida's west coast, Key West, and Jupiter on Florida's east coast, assuring weather forecasters in Washington that it was moving over the state. But a region of high pressure located to the east blocked this path, and the storm turned into the Gulf and toward Galveston.

In 1900 Galveston was one of the most important cotton markets in America. The population of the city was just around 35,000. Galveston is an island city located on the eastern end of Galveston Island, a sand barrier island about 30 miles long and from 1.5 to 3 miles in width between Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Its peak elevation is about 8.7 feet above sea level.

Although storm warning signals were posted along Louisiana and north Texas coast from the 4th to the 6th, no one in the Weather Bureau office associated these conditions to the approach of the storm which had raked the Florida Keys. It appears this belief may have been furthered by an incorrect report from Havana that placed the storm 240 km (150 miles) northeast of Key West.

Off the Louisiana coast, the steamship Louisiana encountered high winds and seas on the morning of the 6th. The ship's barometer dropped from 29.60 inches to 29.25 inches in just four hours, and it was still headed down. At 1 pm, the glass read 28.75 inches. Captain Halsey had never seen such a low reading. He wrote in his log: "...I think the wind was blowing at the rate of more than 100 miles per hour [160 km/h]." At the peak of the storm, Halsey estimated the winds at 150 mph (240 km/h). If true, the hurricane had reached an intensity that would be classified as a Category 4 Hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale.


Early Friday morning, September 7th, the Weather Bureau in Washington notified Dr Isaac M. Cline, the Director of the Galveston Weather Office, that storm warnings had been extended to Galveston. Cline responded by raising the storm warning flags over Galveston Harbor just after 10:30 am. Lacking any reports from offshore, the Weather Bureau failed to recognize they had a full-fledged hurricane loose in the Gulf.

snip

What Cline was seeing was the beginning of the storm surge being pushed ahead of the hurricane as it moved towards the Texas coast. As dawn broke on Saturday morning, Galveston residents looked across the Gulf waters in amazement. Cline observed in a telegram addressed to the Bureau Central Office in Washington:

"Unusually heavy swells from the southeast, intervals of one to five minutes, overflowing low places south portion of city three to four blocks from beach. Such high water with opposing winds never observed previously."

snip

That Saturday afternoon September 8, 1900, hell was unleashed against the City of Galveston. The winds reached storm force about 1 pm after which the wind increased steadily and reached hurricane velocity about 5 pm. As the hurricane rolled in on this island city, it pushed Gulf waters high over the shore.

snip

Many now tried in vain to seek better shelter. But the waters rose to chest-deep and higher, reaching the upper floors of buildings before tearing the buildings from their foundation and sending them crashing inland. Leaving a building meant death by drowning, to stay courted death in its wreckage.

snip

The utter destruction of Galveston and surrounding areas had begun. Through the night buildings were dashed by waves and torn by winds; debris swirled in a mad dervish, crashing through windows and walls and killing animals and people all across the city. Nearly every Galvestonian feared for their lives and for at about 20 percent of the population those fears were realized.

Overnight, the wind steadily diminished in velocity from their evening hurricane force, and at 8 am the morning of the 9th, they blew from the south at a relatively gentle 32 km/h (20 mph). With the dawn, the survivors looked out on "one of the most horrible sights that ever a civilized people looked upon. About three thousand homes, nearly half the residence portion of Galveston, had been completely swept out of existence, and probably more than six thousand persons had passed from life to death during that dreadful night" in Cline's words.

snip

Most accounts of the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 stop here and focus on the human tragedy that hung over the devastated city. Although the storm winds likely dropped below hurricane force shortly after the storm moved inland, the storm continued its destructive path into Texas, before crossing the southern Plains states and finally recurving to the northeast to pass across the lower Great Lakes. It eventually reached the Atlantic Ocean after crossing over the Canadian Maritime Provinces and Newfoundland on September 12-13.

Along the Texas coast and just inland, the towns of Texas City, Dickinson, Lamarque, Hitchcock, Arcadia, Alvin, Manvel, Brazoria, Columbia and Wharton suffered great damage and loss of life and property. Over half of the buildings in Houston were damaged. Along a path two hundred miles wide, wind and rain blasted inland Texas from the Gulf to the Red River Valley. The inland towns of Hempstead, Chapel Hill, Brenham and Temple were ravaged.

Leaving Texas, the storm moved northward across Oklahoma, Kansas and Iowa where it became an extratropical, but no less deadly, storm. Copious rain fell in Minnesota, as much as 127 mm (5 inches) being measured. Six logger were killed on the Eau Claire River in Wisconsin. Winds in Chicago were reported at 128 km/h (80 mph) on the 11th. Telegraph lines were downed, cutting communications across the Midwest.

The storm next moved across Michigan toward southern Lake Huron and the Canadian Province of Ontario. Toronto experienced winds of 80 km/h (50 mph) on the evening of the 11th. Windows were broken across the city. To the south, orchard owners in the Niagara Peninsula and along the Lake Erie shore saw apples, pears and peaches ripped from their trees. About half of the crop, which was ready for harvest, was destroyed -- a loss estimated at $1,000,000 at the time.

On Lake Erie off the Ohio shore, the storm took thirteen lives on the waters when two ships were lost: the steamer John B. Lyon and the schooner Dundee. Although winds had diminished as the storm crossed Ontario, they still made travel on the waters unsafe. On the Ottawa River, yachts at Britannia and Aylmer, Ontario were grounded or dragged away from their anchorage. The steam tug Albert, caught in the gusty winds, released the 14,000 logs it was towing, and the winds scattered them along the shore.

As the storm system approached the Canadian Maritime Provinces on the 12th, it gained strength and again became a killer. Before it moved out into the Atlantic, over 80 Canadians would be dead, possibly 100 or more. Deaths would also be attributed to the storm in Newfoundland (not yet a part of the Canadian Confederation) and the nearby French islands of St. Pierre et Miquelon.

In Prince Edward Island waters, eight small fishing schooners of the Gloucester County, New Brunswick fleet, the Anglesea, Emma, Fly, Frances, Garfield, Hibernia, Nellie and Penguin were lost with 38 reported drowned. In addition, the 35 ton Reality with a crew of four, sunk in Cascumpec Bay at Alberton, Prince Edward Island. Two other fishing vessels the Japan and Midnight were believed to have also foundered in the stormy waters.

On land, extensive damage was also reported. The Halifax Morning Chronicle described it as the worst Nova Scotia storm since 1873, but reported only minor damage within Halifax. On Prince Edward Island, a lobster factory at Seacow Head was totally demolished; a large barn and windmill were blown down at Wilmot; and most orchards had fruit torn from the trees. In New Brunswick, the storm surge and wind-driven waters, coupled with a favourable alignment of the earth, sun and moon, drove an exceptionally high tide up the Bay of Fundy and the Petticodiac River.

With its last slap at North America, the storm crossed Newfoundland from Corner Brook to Gander on the 12th. In its wake, 82 schooners had been driven ashore or sunk and another 100 seriously damaged. At least 50 lives were lost and another 25 missing and presumed dead. South of Newfoundland, the fishing fleet of St. Pierre et Miquelon lost nine schooners and 120 men, leaving 50 children fatherless.

On September 13, the last remnants of the storm raced northeastward across the North Atlantic Ocean curving toward Scandinavia, and finally dying, according to Erik Larson's book Isaac's Storm, somewhere over Siberia.

Nearly a century later, folk singer/songwriter Eric von Schmidt would describe the storm in a song titled Wasn't That a Mighty Storm? By all accounts it was that and more.

_________________
The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. - FDR


Wed Sep 08, 2010 10:37 am
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 1 post ] 


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group.
Designed by Vjacheslav Trushkin for Free Forums/DivisionCore.