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Isaac Cline

Path Through Debris

Retrieving Body

Body Wagon

Morgue

Confused!

Body Among Rubble

Another

Awaiting Burial at Sea

More Damage

Train Cars

The first sighting of the storm was on August 27, 1900, about 1,000 miles east of the Leeward Islands and was reported by mariners as an area of unsettled weather. On August 30th it crossed the Leeward Islands and continued toward Cuba. On September 3rd, it turned in a northwesterly direction and crossed Cuba, as it entered the southern Gulf of Mexico. On September 6 it was reported to be northwest of Key West, Florida.

By that time, the US Weather Bureau was reporting a storm of moderate intensity. The Weather Bureau office in Galveston received regular updates informing them of a tropical storm in the Gulf.
In the early morning hours of Friday, September 7th the storm had increased in intensity and its storm bands were skirting the coastline of Mississippi and Louisiana, inflicting heavy damage to those areas as it traveled westward. Among the damage, were downed telegraph lines, making it impossible to get a message out. The Weather Bureau office in Washington DC had earlier issued a storm warning covering an area from Pensacola, Florida to Galveston, Texas. Winds were estimated by mariners to have been 100 mph at this point and directly ahead lay the island city of Galveston, Texas.

In Galveston the large swells from the southeast told a story of another approaching storm, just as it had been told many times in the past to those living along the coast. To the average resident of Galveston, there was no need to consider this storm greater or lesser than those that had preceded it. The skies were partly cloudy, making most think that the large swells were of little concern.

By late afternoon on Friday the seventh, clouds at varying altitudes began to move into the Galveston area from the northeast. Issac Cline of the local Weather Bureau Office in Galveston ordered that the hurricane warning be raised. The warning was a flag containing two squares.

Saturday morning, Cline and his staff arrived at the office at 5 a.m. and started taking readings. The large swells were still coming in and the sky was only partly cloudy. As the morning progressed, he noted that the wind speeds were increasing, rainfall was increasing and the barometric pressure was steadily dropping. He became more and more convinced that hell itself lurked just offshore.

He continued wiring reports to the Washington office until the telegraph lines went down in the early afternoon and eventually all his weather instruments were damaged or destroyed. Shortly after the 5 p.m. wind speed reading, the anemometer was torn from the roof of the building. The final recording showed the wind speed to be 100 mph.
Only a few residents had crossed the bridges to get out of Galveston, most remained. The streets soon became flooded and the wind was exacting considerable damage to structures. Galveston’s highest point was only 8 feet above sea level.

Earlier that day, At 9:45 a.m., a train had departed Houston, carrying passengers headed to Galveston. It could not complete its journey due to the tracks being washed out and debris on the tracks. Passengers were transferred to another train on a parallel track, which took the passengers into Galveston.

A train from Beaumont, carrying ninety-five passengers tried to approach the east end of Galveston. It was halted at Bolivar Peninsula, located across the bay from Galveston. Under normal weather conditions, the passengers would be ferried across the bay, but the ferry could not make a docking in the rough seas, leaving the train and its passengers sitting on the track. The train attempted to retreat, but was halted by rising water. Ten passengers took refuge in the Point Bolivar lighthouse and the remaining eighty-five passengers remained on the train.

Located to the west, where 69th Street meets the beach, the sisters of St. Mary’s Orphans Asylum were preparing for the storm. The orphanage consisted of two large dormitories, one housed the girls and one housed the boys. There were ninety orphans there and ten sisters. As darkness fell, the sand dunes along the beach began to wash away, taking any plant life with it, leaving the orphanage to face the full fury of a very turbulent Gulf of Mexico.

At night, about 7:30 p.m., the storm surge hit, submerging the entire city and island. Houses were lifted by the water and slammed into other houses. Many were simply obliterated when the fast moving water entered the structures. Boards, glass, plants, animals and other debris filled the water, which overlay the entire island. The city of Galveston lay seven to fifteen feet below the water’s surface! But, the hurricane still raged for another four hours!

As midnight approached, the winds began to die down and a most unsettling night lay ahead for the survivors.

The next day, September 9th broke with a sunny, clear blue sky that afforded the survivors a look at their city. The waters were subsiding and the sights seen through those weary, sleepless eyes were horrifying! Before them lay mounds of wood that were once homes. Dead animals and humans were everywhere - by the hundreds, maybe thousands!

The ten passengers from the Beaumont train, who took refuge at the Point Bolivar lighthouse, survived. The eighty-five who stayed with the train were killed.

All the sisters of the St. Mary’s Orphans Asylum died. Eighty-seven orphans died and three miraculously survived. The two dormitories were gone and only stones from the foundations were later found.

Galveston had been turned into a giant debris field. It was impossible to walk anywhere due to the massive debris mounds. It was not until paths could be cleared through the rubble that a more comprehensive assessment of the damage could be made.

With the telegraph lines down and the bridges destroyed there seemed little chance of getting word to the outside world. However, it was discovered that a few ships had survived the ordeal, among them was the Pherabe. A delegation of six boarded the Pherabe and sailed a short, but perilous trip through debris fields, both floating and underwater, to reach Texas City, located on the western side of Galveston Bay, about ten miles north of Galveston. From there, the delegation proceeded on to Houston, arriving on the 10th, where they telegraphed Texas Governor Joseph Sayers and President William McKinley. Their message read, “I have been deputized by the mayor and Citizen‘s Committee of Galveston to inform you that the city of Galveston is in ruin.”

The storm proceeded northward, through Houston and Dallas before entering the state of Oklahoma. From there it continued on a northward course, making a predictable northeasterly turn, striking the Great Lakes Region while continuing northeast. It tracked just north of Halifax, Nova Scotia before entering the Atlantic. It was no longer tracked after entering the cold waters of the North Atlantic.

The hard work that lay ahead for Galveston residents gave no real indication of the tragedies that would be uncovered during the cleanup. The loss of life was horrendous!

In the days following the storm, paths were cut through the debris. From these paths, searches for people began. Occasionally, a live person would be rescued from beneath a debris pile, but most often, dead bodies were recovered.

Wagons hauling human bodies became a common sight in Galveston for awhile. At first the bodies were loaded on barges and sent out to be buried at sea. In time, the bodies began to wash up on the shore. From that point on, they were either buried where they were found or cremated in a number of funeral pyres. For weeks following the storm, the foul smell of decaying bodies could be smelled everywhere in Galveston; the funeral pyres continued to burn. Whiskey was issued to workers to help them deal with the fact that they were throwing their wives, children and friends onto the fires.

Winifred Bonfils, a young reporter for William Randolph Hearst, was the first reporter to deliver the news. During her series on the Galveston storm, Hearst decided to send relief trains to Galveston to aid in the recovery of the city and its citizens.

The exact number of dead is not known. Most experts agree that over 6,000 people died, many say 8,000 and others say 12,000! Today, it stands as the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. History.

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