Galveston Hurricane of 1900

The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 made landfall on the city of Galveston, Texas, on September 8, 1900. It had estimated winds of 135 miles per hour (217 km/h), making it a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

The city

The city of Galveston at the end of the 19th century was a booming metropolis with a population of 42,000. Its position on the natural harbor of Galveston Bay along the Gulf of Mexico made it the center of trade in the state of Texas. With this prosperity came a sense of complacency.

Related Topics:
Metropolis - Harbor - Galveston Bay - Gulf of Mexico - Texas

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A quarter of a century earlier, the nearby town of Indianola on Matagorda Bay was undergoing its own boom and was second to Galveston among Texas ports. Then in 1875, a powerful hurricane blew through, nearly destroying the town. Indianola was rebuilt, but a second hurricane in 1886 caused residents to simply give up and move elsewhere.

Related Topics:
Indianola - Matagorda Bay - Port - Second hurricane in 1886

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Many Galveston residents took the destruction of Indianola as an object lesson on the threat posed by hurricanes. Galveston was a low, flat island, little more than a giant sandbar along the gulf coast. They called for a seawall to be constructed to protect the city, but their concerns were dismissed by the majority of the population and the city's government.

Related Topics:
Island - Sandbar - Gulf coast - Seawall

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Since its formal founding in 1839, the city of Galveston had weathered numerous storms, which the city survived with ease. Residents believed any future storms would be no worse than previous events. In order to provide an official meteorological statement on the threat of hurricanes, Galveston Weather Bureau section director Isaac Cline wrote an 1891 article in the Galveston News in which he argued not only that a seawall was not needed to protect the city, but that it would be impossible for a hurricane of significant strength to strike the island.

Related Topics:
Meteorological - Isaac Cline - Galveston News

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The seawall was not built, and development activities on the island actively increased its vulnerability to storms. Sand dunes along the shore were cut down to fill low areas in the city, removing what little barrier there was to the Gulf of Mexico.

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