At the end of the nineteenth century Galveston was the fourth largest city in Texas, with a population of 38,000. Known as The Wall Street of the Southwest, Galveston was home to the busiest port on the Gulf Coast and one of the busiest in the United States. The port led the nation in cotton exports and was third in the export of grain.
On The Strand, banks, insurance companies and brokerage houses occupied the Victorian era buildings that lined the street. A few blocks to the south on Broadway, warehouses occupied the east end of the street. To the west stood the grand mansions of the Moody's, Kempner's, and other prominent Galveston families. Issac Kempner founded the Imperial Sugar Co. and later served as Mayor of the city.
The morning of Saturday, September 8 1900 was calm and people went about their business like any normal workday. It was known that a tropical storm was somewhere out in the Gulf Of Mexico but no one seemed too concerned. By midmorning storm clouds were blowing in, and a light rain began to fall. Soon the wind began picking up and the rainfall intensified. The hurricane struck later that afternoon, with wind speeds of up to 140 mph, and rain lashing the streets. Houses and commercial buildings were lifted off their foundations, and driven by the wind acted as battering rams, clearing entire blocks until the debris piled up at the end of the streets.
That Sunday the shaken survivors emerged from their shelters and began to assesse the damage. 30,000 were homeless, and the bodies of the dead seemed to be everywhere. As the clean up began, the able bodied Black men on the island were rounded up at gun point and put to work collecting the deceased. They were loaded onto boats, taken out into the gulf and thrown overboard. Over the next few days the decomposing corpses began washing up on the beaches despite the weights that had been tied to them. They were once again collected, stacked like cord wood and cremated.
The exact death toll will never be known but at least 6,000 and as many as 8,000, twenty percent of the population, died. In terms of loss of life, the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 is the greatest natural disaster in American history.
You can see pictures of the devastation here.
https://www.google.com/search?q=gal...LwpoDPAhWJ8CYKHZ8iDrgQ7AkIOA&biw=1152&bih=593
On The Strand, banks, insurance companies and brokerage houses occupied the Victorian era buildings that lined the street. A few blocks to the south on Broadway, warehouses occupied the east end of the street. To the west stood the grand mansions of the Moody's, Kempner's, and other prominent Galveston families. Issac Kempner founded the Imperial Sugar Co. and later served as Mayor of the city.
The morning of Saturday, September 8 1900 was calm and people went about their business like any normal workday. It was known that a tropical storm was somewhere out in the Gulf Of Mexico but no one seemed too concerned. By midmorning storm clouds were blowing in, and a light rain began to fall. Soon the wind began picking up and the rainfall intensified. The hurricane struck later that afternoon, with wind speeds of up to 140 mph, and rain lashing the streets. Houses and commercial buildings were lifted off their foundations, and driven by the wind acted as battering rams, clearing entire blocks until the debris piled up at the end of the streets.
That Sunday the shaken survivors emerged from their shelters and began to assesse the damage. 30,000 were homeless, and the bodies of the dead seemed to be everywhere. As the clean up began, the able bodied Black men on the island were rounded up at gun point and put to work collecting the deceased. They were loaded onto boats, taken out into the gulf and thrown overboard. Over the next few days the decomposing corpses began washing up on the beaches despite the weights that had been tied to them. They were once again collected, stacked like cord wood and cremated.
The exact death toll will never be known but at least 6,000 and as many as 8,000, twenty percent of the population, died. In terms of loss of life, the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 is the greatest natural disaster in American history.
You can see pictures of the devastation here.
https://www.google.com/search?q=gal...LwpoDPAhWJ8CYKHZ8iDrgQ7AkIOA&biw=1152&bih=593
