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The Storm of 1900:
Then on September 8th, everything changed. Galveston was hit with what is
known today as the worst natural disaster in U.S. history, The Storm of 1900.
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Residential area after The Storm of 1900.
Picture from the Rosenburg Library.
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This brutal storm ripped through the town, devestating the island, obliterating
hundreds of buildings, and killing over 6,000 people. The day following The Storm,
nearly one of every six people on the island were dead.
The townspeople of Galveston had much mourning to do, but The Storm was also a call
to action. Galveston had to work quickly to make sure no storm ever ravaged the
island that badly again. In an incredible engineering effort that still
protects Galveston to this day, two protective measures were implemented.
The first was the construction of a giant Seawall to protect the town from surging storm
waters from the ocean. The second measure was to take the equivalent of
nearly a million dump trucks of sand and literally raise the entire island 17
feet above its old elevation.
Fifteen years later, in the year 1915, Galveston was faced with another
monster storm that would test the Seawall and the raised island's effectiveness. With 93 mile per hour winds and gusts
of up to 120 miles per hour, this new, gigantic storm was just as big as The Storm of 1900.
This time instead of 6,000 deaths, the town only suffered from twelve.
History: » Next Page - "Galveston & The Strand Today"...
More information about The Storm of 1900 can be found at: www.1900storm.com.
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