Galveston Hurrican

Galveston, Texas was a booming city at the end of the 19th century with a population of about 42,000 people, the biggest city in Texas. It was built around the Galveston Harbor on the Gulf of Mexico which made it a center for trade and commerce. The city was in the midst of a great boom and cotton season had just begun. Galveston had become the largest cotton port in the US. Over the course of the city's existence it weathered many storms that cause an insignificant amount of damage to the city to cause concern. The citizens believed that the city had seen the worst that could happen so the didn't demand a seawall to be built and even the Galveston Weather Bureau made a statement saying that it was unnecessary because a big enough storm would never be able to reach the city. The citizens had no idea of what was to come.

August 27th, about 1000 miles east of the Caribbean Islands, ships began to report rough weather. Three days later another report from Antigua state that a severe thunderstorm was approaching. Then on September 1st the US Weather bureau reported a "storm of moderate intensity" was forming southeast of Cuba. By September 4th Galveston received warnings that a tropical storm was moving off the coast of Cuba but in an unsure direction. September 6th, reports came in stating the storm was heading north from Key West and in the morning of September 7th New Orleans reported heavy damage to the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi. The US Weather Bureau also ordered storm warnings from Pensacola, Florida to Galveston. Galveston received little information about the storm due to damage to telegraph lines during the storm, however, by noon on the 7th large swells appeared off the coast of Galveston along with cloud movement from the northeast. The Galveston Weather Bureau raised the hurricane warning flag immediately which was dismissed by the public due to clear skies and fair weather.

By early afternoon on the 8th winds began to pick up until at 5 o'clock sustained hurricane force winds where recorded. Maximum winds were estimated at 120 mph seeing as how the anemometer was blown off the building after reading 100 mph. The barometric pressure dropped to an estimated 27.49 inHg. The city was in the midst of a Category 4 hurricane. Trains had been thrown off the tracks and water covered about half to the city streets. The highest point in Galveston only stood 8.7 feet above sea level which was no match to the

...