Galveston TX September 8-9 / 1900

[John Olexa]

On this day: 9-8-1900 the worst weather disaster in terms of life lost hit Galveston TX. The hurricane reached category 4 strength with winds around 140mph with a storm surge of 15 feet. Over 3,000 homes were swept off their foundations. Estimated fatalities range from 6,000 to 12,000.

 

[Skip Talbot]

I picked up a copy of Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson after hearing Lew Fincher's review of it at the National Tropical Weather Conference. It's a very dramatic yet detailed and historical narrative of the Galveston hurricane. I highly recommend it if you're interested in this event. Quite the coincidence, I happened to be reading the landfall chapters 114 years to the day after the landfall of this hurricane.

 

[NancyM]

I'm glad to know about that book. Erik Larson knows how to write a riveting account of historical events. His "In the Garden of Beasts", about pre-WWII Berlin, was terrific.

Incidentally, my husband's great uncle (I think), Zachary Scott, was a young medical student in Galveston during the hurricane. His experiences are mentioned here:

http://archive.org/stream/weekendinseptemb010743mbp/weekendinseptemb010743mbp_djvu.txt

and other places on the web.

 

[John Olexa]

Thanks Skip. If anybody else is interested in this book, Amazon has used copies for as little as 1 cent (and up) Always $3.99 shipping.