Isaac’s Storm

Galveston hurricane was a deadly hurricane which hit leeward island, Cuba, Hispaniola and Texas in 1915.

The weather forecasters warned in advance about the storm, but people did not take precautions. The 1900 storm made landfall on the city of Galveston. Both the 1900 hurricane and 1915 hurricane took similar path, however the 1915 hurricane affected a large region bringing strong winds and heavy rains which left $921million damage. Many people reasoned that the storm which was being predicated by the forecasters would be like the one they had experienced before. However Galveston had never experience storm of that kind.

According to Erik Larson government's attitude towards such storm was far more arrogant compared to today. He continues to explain that the U.S weather service did not even like to use words "hurricane" or "tornado".The estimation of wind speed of 1900 hurricane was 135 miles per hour which is equivalent to 217 km/h. this qualifies the storm to be classified in category 4 on Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale.

Following this storm a lot of people lost their life and the death toll was estimated to range between 6,000 and 12,000, although the number mostly quoted in reports is 8,000, which makes the storm the third-highest number of fatalities of any Atlantic hurricane, past the vast Hurricane of 1780 and 1998's Hurricane Mitch. By contrast, Okeechobee Hurricane which was not as large as Galveston hurricane, caused more than 6,000 deaths, and also the recent deadliest storm, Hurricane Katrina, killed approximately 1,800 people.Galveston hurricane happened before the practice of assigning official code names to tropical storms was founded, and thus it is usually referred under various explanatory names. Commonly used names to refer to the storm are; the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, the Great Galveston Hurricane, and, especially in older documents, the Galveston Flood. It is frequently referred to by Galveston locals as The Great Storm or The 1900 Storm.

Following the ignorance of the people of the so called confidence of blind, the storm led to high destruction of the building as well as people. Communication was very much affected as the bridges and telegraph line were destroyed thus preventing access to the mainland. There were some few ships at the Galveston wharfs which survived the storm, one of them being the pherable which arrived in Texas City on the western side of Galveston bay. This ship was in board of six passengers from the city. On their arrival to telegraph office in Houston, they sent a short message to Texas governor and the U.

S president then, informing the situation at Galveston but it was taken as exaggeration.The citizens of Houston were prepared to offer assistance because they knew a powerful storm had blown through. About 8,000 people, which are approximately 20% of the total island's population, had perished. Estimates ranging from 6,000 to 12,000, majority having drowned or been swapped as the waves crushed the debris that had been their homes hours before. There were cases also for some people who survived the storm but died after some days trapped under the wreckage of the city and rescuers were unable to reach them in time.

There were so many body bodies that burying them all was impossible. The dead were at first dumped at sea; the gulf currents carried the bodies back onto the beach so a new way out was needed. Memorial services were set up wherever the dead were found and burned for weeks after the storm. The system ruled out free whiskey to work crews that had to throw the bodies of their wives and children on the burn piles.

Many people were killed in this single storm than even the number of those who died in all the tropical cyclones that have struck the United States before.Even though the hurricane did not make landfall in western Cuba, the Florida Keys, the outer rain bands of the storm still created tropical storm force winds and scattered downpours. There were gale winds reported in Key West, although there were no reports of damage. Offshore, several ships and boats caught out in the hurricane hobbled home with moderate damage.

Regardless of the fact that the ship was made with radios, the ship sank, drowning all passengers who were about 96 and crew. In the northern Gulf of Mexico, a schooner sank quite a few miles south of Mobile, Alabama: there were three fatalities. Several miles east, off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, there were two more fatalities when a fishing boat ran ashore. In the central Gulf of Mexico, another schooner was vanished, but the crewmen lived. In all, the hurricane about 101 people died in the Gulf of Mexico and Yucatan Channel.

There was a series of fire which broke out in Galveston, after the storm's passage, and relief assistance was slow since the causeway that connected Galveston to mainland Texas was badly affected. The cost of revamping the bridge was ranging to $500,000 dollars (1915 USD). The impact of the damage to the bridge and a key water, resulted to a significant water shortage that lasted for long.