1900 — Sep 9, Hurricane, Galveston and southeast coastal area, TX –7,200-12,000
— 12,000 Lester, Paul. The Great Galveston Disaster. 1900, reprinted 2000.[1]
— 12,000 Rappaport and Fernandez-Partagas. The Deadliest Atlantic…Cyclones. 1995.[2]
–8,000-12,000 Ousley, Clarence. Galveston in Nineteen Hundred. 1900.[3]
–8,000-12,000 Larson, Erik. Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and…Deadliest Hurricane... 1998.
–7,200-12,000 Blanchard estimate.[4]
–6,000-12,000 CNN.com. “Hurricane Destroyed Galveston in 1900.” September 12, 2008.
–6,000-12,000 Epic Disasters. “The Ten Deadliest US Hurricanes.”
–6,000-12,000 Hess. “`Certain Death’ Warning…Scoffers…Galveston Mandatory Evacuation.”
— >12,000 Sayers (Gov. Joseph D.). “Galveston and elsewhere on the southern coast…”[5]
>8,000 Bedient/Sebastian. “An Introduction to Gulf Coast Severe Storms…” 2012, 5.
— >8,000 Blake, et al. The Deadliest, Costliest…Most Intense U. S. Cyclones… 2007.[6]
— >8,000 Hughes. “Hurricanes Haunt Our History.” Weatherwise, 40/3, 1987, 134-140.[7]
— 8,000 National Hurricane Center, NWS. Hurricanes in History. 5-30-2012 update.
— >8,000 NOAA. “NOAA’s Top U.S. Weather…Events of the 20th Century.” 1999.
— 6,000-8,000 NWS WFO Houston/Galveston, TX. One Hundred Years…[SE TX]Weather
— 6,000-8,000 Pocock and Lee. “Disasters in the United States, 1650-2005.” 2007.
— 8,000 Roth, David (NWS). Texas Hurricane History. Jan 17, 2010 update, p. 9.
— 8,000 Webley & Holmes (USGS). “Top 10 Historic U.S. Floods.” Time. 5-11-2011.
— 6,000-7,200 Ludlum. The American Weather Book. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1982, p. 202.
— 7,000 ARC. New York-New England Hurricane and Floods — 1938. 1939, p. 9.
— <6,000 Ludlum. The American Weather Book. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1982, p. 189.
— 6,000 Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. EM DAT Database.
— 6,000 Garriott. “Forecasts and Warnings,” 371 in MWR, Vol. XXVIII, N. 9, Sep 1900.
— ~6,000 Green, Nathan C. (Ed.). Story of the 1900 Galveston Hurricane. 1900, p. 3.
— 6,000 Hebert/Taylor. The Deadliest, Costliest, and Most Intense U.S. Hurricanes. 1983
— 6,000 Hebert/Jarrell/Mayfield. The Deadliest, Costliest, and Most Intense… 1993, p. 8.
— 6,000 Sav. Natural Disasters: Some Empirical and Economic Considerations 1974, 8.
— ~6,000 Sumner. “North Atlantic Hurricanes and Tropical Disturbances of 1944.” P. 237.
Narrative Information
Garriott: “Measured by losses of life and property and the depression of the barometer at Galveston, Tex., the hurricane of September 8, 1900, was the severest storm that ever occurred in the United States. On Galveston Island upward of 6,000 human beings were drowned, or killed by falling buildings or flying debris, and property to the estimated value of $30,000,000 was destroyed. Enormous losses of life and property were also reported in the inland coast country. The barometer, which reached a verified minimum of 25.43 inches at Galveston was lower by .10 inch than any reading previously made at a station of the Weather Bureau. The maximum wind velocities registered in this and other great storms are not comparable for the reason that the apparatus employed to record wind force can not, as a rule, withstand velocities which approach 100 miles an hour. At Galveston the greatest recorded wind velocity, for a five-minute period, was 84 miles an hour at 6:15 p. m., and 2 miles mere registered at a rate of 100 miles an hour. At that time the anemometer was blown away. It was estimated that a velocity of at least 120 miles an hour was attained between 6:15 and 8 p.m…..
“The devastation at Galveston was caused principally by a storm wave, which swept in from the Gulf in advance of the hurricane’s vortex. This wave, 4 feet in depth, struck the already submerged island with almost irresistible force, and entirely destroyed the south, east, and west portions of the city for a distance of two to five blocks inland. In other parts of the city many houses were destroyed and none escaped injury.” (Garriott. “Forecasts and Warnings,” 371 in MWR, Vol. XXVIII, N. 9, Sep 1900.)
Ludlum: “The Galveston Disaster; severe hurricane tide inundated island city under 8 to 12 ft…of water; over 6000 perished; 3600 houses destroyed; damage $30 million.” (p. 189)
“City officials estimated that over 6000 persons of a population of 38,000 were missing at Galveston, Texas, after the flood waters had subsided from the ‘threat storm’ on September 8-9, 1900. Recent estimates for the entire area have ranged up to 7200 – the exact number can never be ascertained. A storm wave, said to be ‘nearly five feet high,’ struck the already inundated waterfront early in the evening, causing houses and buildings to either collapse or float away. Many who though they had reached a safe vantage in these structures were drowned.” (Ludlum 1982, 202)
NOAA: “Galveston Hurricane, 1900. On September 8, 1900, a 20-foot storm surge, associated with one of the most powerful hurricanes of the century, inundated Galveston Island in Texas. More than 8,000 people died, making this the deadliest natural disaster in U. S. history. The Galveston office of the U. S. Weather Bureau later recalled: “Sunday, Sept 9, 1900, revealed one of the most horrible sights that ever a civilized people looked upon. About 3,000 homes, nearly half of the residence portion of Galveston, had been completely swept out of existence, and probably more than 6,000 people had passed from life to death during that dreadful night. The correct number of those who perished will be probably never be known, for many entire families are missing. Where 20,000 people lived on the 8th, not a house remained on the 9th, and who occupied the houses may, in many instances, never be known.”
“Technology Sidebar: In those days, forecasters relied on ship reports, tidal measurements, barometric readings and the color of the sky as warnings of impending tropical storms. It was known that a hurricane was nearby in the Gulf of Mexico, but forecasters lacked the ability to track storms. Today’s advancements in technology and science allow NOAA’s National Weather Service and National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service to give a forecast for the year’s tropical storm activity before the hurricane season starts in June…” (NOAA. “NOAA’s Top U.S. Weather, Water and Climate Events of the 20th Century.”)
NWS: “The Great Storm – September 8, 1900 (also known as the 1900 Galveston Hurricane)
- Death toll estimated between 6,000 and 8,000
- Greatest natural disaster in U.S. history in terms of lives lost
- Sustained winds were in excess of 130 mph
- Storm tides reached 20 feet
- Storm damage was estimated in excess of $30 million dollars [non-adjusted].
(National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office Houston/Galveston, TX. One Hundred Years of Southeast Texas Weather (1900-2000). Dickinson, TX: NWS, 12-20-2009 modification.)
Ousley: “A city of 38,000 happy and busy people; a city of splendid homes and broad clean streets; a city of oleanders and roses and palms; a city of the finest churches, school buildings, and benevolent institutions in the South; a thriving port with many ocean-going ships at anchor, discharging and receiving cargo; a seaside resort, with hundreds of bathers at play in the safest and most delightful surf in the world; a city of great wealth and large charity – that was Galveston on September 8, 1900.
“A city of 32,000 stunned and stricken people, a thousand naked, five thousand bruised, ten thousand homeless, all searching for their friends among the slain, tearless but bleeding at the heart, unappalled and uncomplaining; a city of wrecked homes and streets choked with debris sandwiched with six thousand corpses; a city leafless and bloomless, with the slime of the ocean on every spot and in every house; a city with only three churches standing, not a school building or benevolent institution habitable; a port with shipping stranded and wrecked many miles from the moorings, light craft cast upon the land as the playthings of the elements, ocean-going vessels sent crashing through railroad bridges or driven high onto shore and shallow; a wide, white beach and a rolling surf three hundred feet inward from the former water line, tenantless as the primal seas, lapping an area of total destruction four blocks deep and three miles long, with not a timber of three thousand houses left to mark their sites; a city without fortune or resource…a city without lights except tallow candles and kerosene lamps; a city without fresh water except the slender store in a few up-ground cisterns; a city with food for scarcely a week, cut off from the world by three miles of shallow bay and many miles more of utter devastation; a city whose very cemeteries had been emptied of their dead as if to receive new tenants – that was Galveston on September 9, 1900, the sad and fateful Sunday when she awakened to her sorrow…when the first and last sob of unspeakable grief welled once to the lips and then was smothered in the tremendous responsibility of caring for the living….” (Ousley, Galveston in Nineteen Hundred, 1900, 23)
Roth: “The question from the Racer’s Storm was tragically prophetic as the Great Galveston Hurricane showed on September 7-9th, 1900. It towers alone as the worst natural disaster in the United States in terms of lives lost;[8] the most frequently used estimate of the death toll is 8,000. The potential of this disaster had been shown in the destructions of Santiago in 1844, Clarksville / Baghdad in 1867, and Indianola in 1875 and 1886. At the time, the population of Galveston was near 30,000. Most of its structures were of wood frame, built just above ground level and supported by pilings.
“A new innovation helped relay details about what the storm did in the Caribbean Islands; it was known as the wireless telegraph. Word had been received of a hurricane which had struck Trinidad and destroyed almost all the structures on that island. Word of the storm’s passing over Cuba and moving northwest into the Gulf in the direction of Texas had been relayed to the local weather office in Galveston Island. Sailors began to arrive in the port telling of nasty weather offshore.
“On the 6th, a hurricane watch was posted along the Gulf Coast, westward to New Orleans. Winds began to increase as high, fish-scale shaped clouds (altocumulus) began to move inland. By the next day, the hurricane watch was extended west to include Texas. Driving rain began at 4 AM. Large waves began to pound the shores of Galveston Island. The pressure began to fall rapidly at the Weather Bureau station. This caused them to hoist a Hurricane Flag – their version of a hurricane warning. This action caused about 20,000 people to evacuate, a move that saved many lives.
“Yet a number of people ignored the warning. Gentry from Houston rode out to the island via train to witness the huge waves first hand. Through the morning of the 8th, greater and greater numbers of people crowded the beaches. Isaac Cline of the Weather Bureau could not believe what was happening. He took matters into his own hands and rode with his brother down the beach in a horse-drawn buggy, warning people to go back to the mainland – in effect, making him a modern day Paul Revere. Unfortunately, few listened. The weather, however, changed their minds as a wooden pagoda along the beach and its associated boardwalk became mere driftwood before the crowd’s eyes. Then they began to disperse. For many, it turned out to be far too late. A steamer broke free of its moorings and went on a rampage, destroying all three bridges to the mainland.
“Winds of 100 mph blew away the anemometer at the Weather Bureau. The pressure fell to 28.44″. Winds gusting over 125 mph sent raging waters covering Galveston Island by 15 feet just before midnight, with additional waves much higher on top of the storm surge. As flood waters rose, people fled towards the center of the island, which had slightly higher ground. This turned out to be fruitless, as it merely delayed the inevitable. The force of the wind sent boards, chairs, and tree limbs sailing through the air. Pebbles and shards of glass became deadly missiles. When the water began rising, Harry Claiborne, keeper of the Bolivar Point Lighthouse, fled to the safety of his workplace. People soon after began pounding on the door, begging entry into the sanctuary of the lighthouse. The tower was soon crammed with 124 people, many of which were from a train stranded in the rising waters. After a while, the big door to the lighthouse was hidden under four feet of water . The lighthouse survived the storm (Roberts[9]).
“Wooden buildings floated off their pilings and smashed into one another. As houses disintegrated, unfortunate occupants were thrust into the water to drown. In all, more than 2600 houses were demolished….Twelve square blocks, 3/4 of the city, were completely wiped out. All bridges across the bay were destroyed, along with 15 miles of railroad track. All communications with the mainland were lost. Vast quantities of rain fell, with Galveston (10″) and Brazoria (10″) setting 24 hour rainfall records for September.
“The British Freighter Kendall Castle was moored offshore. Several ships were driven against it. But is was when the Norwegian freighter Guller nudged against the Castle that it was sent on a “wild ride” over the Half-moon Shoal lighthouse, pounding it into the sand, on its way to Texas City (Cipra[10]). Very little damage was seen at Sabine Pass, which shows how small the core of this storm was in areal extent.
“However, fewer than 2000 of those remaining on the island survived. The weather office chief survived, but his wife drowned. Bolivar Point Lighthouse became the center of relief activities after the storm. The lighthouse over the ensuing days let people in the area know that at least one thing still worked on the island, as it helped storm-battered ships return to shore. Martial law was declared. Looters were shot on the spot.
“The old first capitol building of the Republic of Texas at West Columbia was destroyed. Mustang Island also saw many bodies littering the beach. Alvin saw 8.05″ of rain fall on the 9th, setting a 24 hour rainfall record for September. Quintana was partially abandoned, after being seriously harmed by both the 1899 Flood and this hurricane. Corpus Christi had a stiff northeast breeze, but exceptional fishing. In Flour Bluff Harbor, millions of red, trout, and mullet infested the waters, in their avoidance of the hurricane. Local residents feasted on the tarpon and helped out Galveston with over $1000 for food and clothing. The storm accelerated after moving inland, racing north to the Great Lakes while still packing 70 mph winds. The low then moved across Canada, the North Atlantic, and Northern Europe before finally dying in Siberia. Thirty million dollars in damage occurred.
“A massive public works project was then undertaken to raise the Galveston’s elevation and build a three mile long, 17 foot high, concrete seawall. This has, to date, prevented a tragedy of such proportions from occurring in Galveston. The city never quite regained its importance as a port, due to the construction of the Houston ship channel, similar to the fate of Indianola fourteen years before. As population swells along the coast, construction expanded into areas not protected by the seawall. Those that have not learned from history are doomed to repeat it.” (Roth, David (NWS). Texas Hurricane History. Jan 17, 2010 update, pp. 29-30.)
Newspaper
Sep 19: “Houston, Sept 19–Gov Joseph D. Sayers tonight made the following statement:
The situation tonight in all parts of the stricken district, so far as known to me, is improved, and will, I believe, should we have fair weather, continue to improve. The method of distributing the benefactions of the people has become systematized, and has been reduced to the lowest expense possible.
Galveston is being managed by its own municipal authorities, supplemented by the assistance of committees composed of its best citizens, and also by the aid of Gen Scurry.
“Judge Taliaffero of Houston, a gentleman of integrity and experience, has taken charge of Brazoria county and the mainland of Galveston county, and I have already transmitted to him quite a large sum of money to be used for supplying that particular district, besides having previously shipped to Angleton, Alvin and Velasco a very large quantity of flour and bacon.
The county judge of Fort Bend county has charge of supplies for that county. He has already been furnished with a large shipment of flour and bacon.
The sheriff of Waller county has been directed to organize the suffering communities in that county, and as soon as I am notified of the perfection of organization in Waller county, supplies will be rapidly forwarded, and there need be no apprehension but that each and every afflicted community will at the earliest moment practicable receive an abundant supply of provisions.
As soon as I am able I shall give to the public complete itemized statement of all moneys received by me, how they have been distributed, etc.
The loss of life occasioned by the storm in Galveston and elsewhere on the southern coast cannot be less than 12,000, while the loss of property will probably aggregate $20,000,000.
Notwithstanding this severe affliction, I have every confidence that the stricken districts will rapidly revive and that Galveston will from her present desolation and sorrow arise with renewed strength and vigor.
(Boston Daily Globe. “12,000 Dead, Says Gov Sayers.” 9-20-1900, p. 17.)
Sources:
American National Red Cross. New York-New England Hurricane and Floods — 1938 (Official Report of Relief Operations). Washington, DC: ARC, Oct. 1939.
Bedient, Philip B. and Antonia Sebastian. Chapter 1: “An Introduction to Gulf Coast Severe Storms and Hurricanes,” pp. 1-15 in: Bedient, Philip B. (Ed.) Lessons From Hurricane Ike. Texas A&M University Press, 2012. Google preview accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=gelBBDRUjCcC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Blake, Eric S., Edward N. Rappaport, and Christopher W. Landsea. The Deadliest, Costliest, and Most Intense United States Cyclones From 1851 to 2006. Miami, FL: National Weather Service, National Hurricane Center, April 15, 2007 update, 45 pages. Accessed at: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/Deadliest_Costliest.shtml
Boston Daily Globe. “12,000 Dead, Says Gov Sayers.” 9-20-1900, p. 17. Accessed 9-4-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/boston-daily-globe-sep-20-1900-p-17/?tag
Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. EM DAT Database. Louvain, Belgium: Universite Catholique do Louvain. http://www.emdat.be/
CNN. “Hurricane Destroyed Galveston in 1900.” September 12, 2008. Accessed at: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/09/12/galveston.1900/
Epic Disasters. The Ten Deadliest US Hurricanes. Accessed 1-4-2009 at: http://www.epicdisasters.com/index.php/site/comments/the_ten_deadliest_us_hurricanes/
Garriott, E.B. “Forecasts and Warnings,” p. 371 in Monthly Weather Review, Vol. XXVIII, No. 9, September 1900. At: http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/mwr/028/mwr-028-09-0371a.pdf
Green, Nathan C. (Ed.). Story of the 1900 Galveston Hurricane. R. H. Woodward Co., 1900; reprinted by Pelican (Gretna, LA), 2000. Google preview accessible at: http://books.google.com/books?id=dQUsx9u5mq8C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Hebert, Paul J. and Glenn Taylor. The Deadliest, Costliest, and Most Intense United States Hurricanes of This Century (and Other Frequently Requested Hurricane Facts) (NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS NHC 18). Miami, FL: National Hurricane Center, National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, January 1983, 24 pages. At: http://ratfish.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/NWS-NHC-1983-18.pdf
Hebert, Paul J., J.D. Jarrell, Max Mayfield. The Deadliest, Costliest, and Most Intense United States Hurricanes of This Century (NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS-NHC-31). Miami, FL: National Hurricane Center, National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce 1993, 41 pages.
Hess, Michael. “`Certain Death’ Warning for Scoffers of Galveston Mandatory Evacuation.” BBSNews. September 12, 2008. At: http://bbsnews.net/article.php/20080912023823427
Hughes, Patrick. “Hurricanes Haunt Our History.” Weatherwise, Vol. 40, No. 3, 1987, 134-140.
Larson, Erik. Isaac’s Storm. NY: Vintage Books, 1998, 2000.
Lester, Paul. The Great Galveston Disaster. Gretna: Pelican Publishing Co., 2000 (reprint, originally published in 1900), 536 pages.
Ludlum, David M. The American Weather Book. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1982.
National Hurricane Center, National Weather Service. Hurricanes in History. 5-30-2012 update. Accessed at: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/outreach/history/
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “NOAA’s Top U.S. Weather, Water and Climate Events of the 20th Century.” NOAA News, 12-13-1999. Accessed at: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/s334c.htm
National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office, Houston/Galveston, TX. One Hundred Years of Southeast Texas Weather (1900-2000). Dickinson, TX: NWS, 12-20-2009 modification. Accessed 6-8-2012 at: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/hgx/?n=climate_holidays_hundred
Ousley, Clarence (Galveston Tribune). Galveston in Nineteen Hundred – The Authorized and Official Record of the Proud City of the Southwest as it was before and after the Hurricane of September 8, and a logical forecast of its future. Atlanta, GA: William C. Chase, 1900, 346 pp.
Pocock, Emil, and Jamal Lee. “Disasters in the United States, 1650-2005.” American Studies, Eastern Connecticut State Univ., 11-1-2005 mod. http://www.easternct.edu/depts/amerst/disasters.htm
Rappaport, Edward N. and Jose Fernandez-Partagas. The Deadliest Atlantic Tropical Cyclones, 1492-1994 (NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS NHC-47). Coral Gables, FL: National Hurricane Center, National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, January 1995, 42 pages. Accessed at: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/NWS-NHC-1995-47.pdf
Roth, David (National Weather Service). Texas Hurricane History. Camp Springs, MD: NWS. 1-17-2010 update. Accessed at http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/research/txhur.pdf
Sav, Thomas G. Natural Disasters: Some Empirical and Economic Considerations (Final Report, NBSIR 74-473). Washington, DC: National Bureau of Standards, Institute for Applied Technology, Center for Building Technology, Building Economics Section, February 1974, 74 pages. Accessed at: http://www.fire.nist.gov/bfrlpubs/build74/PDF/b74006.pdf
Sumner, H. C. “North Atlantic Hurricanes and Tropical Disturbances of 1944.” Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 72, No. 12, 3-5-1945, pp. 237-239. Accessed at: http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/general/lib/lib1/nhclib/mwreviews/1944.pdf
Webley, Kayla and Robert Holmes (USGS). “Top 10 Historic U.S. Floods.” Time. 5-11-2011. At: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2070796_2070798,00.html?xid=rss-specials
[1] “The loss of life occasioned by the storm in Galveston and elsewhere on the southern coast cannot be less than 12,000 lives…” Statement of Governor Sayres on 19 Sep 1900 printed in Lester (1900).
[2] Authors note that “Just after the storm, the Governor of the State of Texas estimate 12,000 fatalities…”; citing Lester 1900.
[3] “There are many estimates of the total. This one, based on the “official” summary in Galveston in 1900 (Ousley 1900), is: 6000 in city of Galveston, 1000-1200 elsewhere on the island west of the city and more than 1000 on the mainland. Maximum estimates provided are 10000-12000. Monthly Weather Review indicates “Enormous loss of life…inland”, as well. Most other references indicate a loss of at least 6000.” Rappaport and Partagas, 1995, fn i in Appendix 1: Cyclones with 25+ deaths; Bevin April 22, 1997 update.
[4] Most accounts of the storm focus on Galveston and loss of life there, some exclusively. There seems to be some consensus that at least 6,000 people died at Galveston. The Governor, ten days afterwards, was writing that at least 12,000 people died in the entire storm area which included many counties to the west, north and east of Galveston. Thus there appears to be a floor of 6,000 for Galveston and 12,000 for southeast Texas. I cannot judge from the variety of reporting of 7,200 or 8,000 deaths one sees, what a good estimate is for the total affected area, if one were to be skeptical of the Governor’s statements — as several authors seem to be. I choose to use as the low-end of the range of deaths for the entire coast the figure of 7,200 used by Ludlum who notes it is based on recent work.
[5] Boston Daily Globe. “12,000 Dead, Says Gov Sayers.” Sep 20, 1900, p. 17.
[6] Authors note that deaths “Could be as high as 12,000.” (p. 7, Table 2 Note a)
[7] Hughes writes that the hurricane “killed at least 6,000 people in Galveston and 2,000 more in adjacent coastal areas.” (p. 138.)
[8] We would respectfully disagree in that we hold that epidemics are as much “natural” as hurricanes. It does hold the record as the deadliest meteorological disaster in American history.
[9] Roberts, Bruce, Ray Jones. “Lights of Hurricane Alley” Southern Lighthouses: Chesapeake Bay To the Gulf of Mexico. Globe Pequot Press: Old Saybrook, 1995: 83-108.
[10] Cipra, David L.: Lighthouses, Lightships, and the Gulf of Mexico. Cypress Communications: Alexandria, 1997.