The Great Galveston Disaster (1900 Hurricane) Prompt

The Great Galveston Disaster Prompt Essay*
Based on book by: Paul Lester (1900)
The Great Galveston Disaster Prompt Essay*
Based on book by: Paul Lester (1900)
This prompt writing exercise is based on events and excerpts from THE GREAT
GALVESTON DISASTER. Shortly after the Galveston Hurricane of September 8th, 1900,
devastated the city of Galveston, Texas, a book featuring numerous accounts of Galvestonians
appeared. This exercise takes 23 survivor stories appearing in the text for a writing assignment.
Each student is assigned a survivor’s story and requested to rewrite the account taking on the
persona of the survivor. The one-page essay is to be read or shared verbally as a first person talk
to the class. Included in the essay should be added details about the storm from a general article
about Galveston and the storm’s impact on local citizens.
Below are listed the individual survivor’s testimonies. Female students are assigned
women’s accounts and males the men’s stories. There is an excellent video produced by the
HISTORY CHANNEL based on a 1999 non-fiction novel, ISAAC’S STORM, which the class
may view over the Internet at the address listed below. Though the video is approximately 90
minutes long, too long for a normal class period, it may be viewed beginning 47 minutes into
the story.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5738477727172072633#
(The video may also be found by entering the search words “Isaac’s Hurricane Storm” in
the Google search field then clicking on the “video” search option among those listed on the
Google search page. Remember to click on the YouTube player’s full screen “box” icon on the
player progress bar bordering the bottom of the screen image. To return to the Google page,
click a second time on the box icon.)
Prior to composing the “eye-witness survivor’s prompt”, read the following summary of
the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. Use content of the summary and the video, if viewed, in the
first-person testimonial essay prompt.
The Galveston Hurricane of 1900
From Wikipedia
The 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) at landfall, making it a Category 4 storm on the SaffirSimpson Hurricane Scale.
The hurricane caused great loss of life with the estimated death toll between 6,000 and
12,000 individuals; the number most cited in official reports is 8,000, giving the storm the third-highest number
of casualties of any Atlantic hurricane, after the Great Hurricane of 1780 and 1998’s Hurricane Mitch. The
Galveston Hurricane of 1900 is to date the deadliest natural disaster ever to strike the United States. By contrast,
the second-deadliest storm to strike the United States, the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane, caused approximately
more than 6,000 deaths, and the deadliest storm of recent times, Hurricane Katrina, claimed the lives of
approximately 1,800 people.
The hurricane occurred before the practice of assigning official code names to tropical storms was
instituted, and thus it is commonly referred to under a variety of descriptive names. Typical names for the storm
include the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, the Great Galveston Hurricane, and, especially in older documents,
the Galveston Flood. It is often referred to by Galveston locals as The Great Storm or The 1900 Storm.
Details of the storm were not widespread; damage to telegraph lines limited communication. The
Weather Bureau’s central office in Washington, D.C. ordered storm warnings raised from Pensacola, Florida to
Galveston. By the afternoon of the 7th, large swells from the southeast were observed on the Gulf, and clouds at
all altitudes began moving in from the northeast. Both of these observations are consistent with a hurricane
approaching from the east. The Galveston Weather Bureau office raised its double square flags; a hurricane
warning was in effect. The ship Louisiana encountered the hurricane at 1 p.m. that day after departing New
Orleans. Captain Halsey estimated wind speeds of 100 mph (160 km/h). These winds correspond to a
Category 2 hurricane in the modern-day Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.
By early afternoon, a steady northeastern wind had picked up. By 5 p.m., the Bureau office was
recording sustained hurricane-force winds. That night, the wind direction shifted to the east, and then to the
southeast as the hurricane’s eye began to pass over the island. By 11 p.m., the wind was southerly and
diminishing. On Sunday morning, clear skies and a 20 mph (30 km/h) breeze off the Gulf of Mexico greeted the
Galveston survivors.[3] The storm continued on, and later tracked into Oklahoma. From there, it continued over
the Great Lakes while still sustaining winds of almost 40 mph (as recorded over Milwaukee, Wisconsin) and
passed north of Halifax, Nova Scotia on September 12, 1900 From there it traveled into the North Atlantic
where it disappeared from observations, after decimating the schooner fleet fishing off the coast of
Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
At the end of the 19th century, the city of Galveston, Texas was a booming town with a population of
42,000 residents. Its position on the natural harbor of Galveston Bay along the Gulf of Mexico made it the
center of trade and the biggest city in the state of Texas. With this prosperity came a sense of complacency.
As severe as the damage to the city’s buildings was, the human toll was even greater. Because of the
destruction of the bridges to the mainland and the telegraph lines, no word of the city’s destruction was able to
reach the mainland. At 11 a.m. on September 9, one of the few ships at the Galveston wharfs to survive the
storm, the Pherabe, arrived in Texas City on the western side of Galveston Bay. It carried six messengers from
the city. When they reached the telegraph office in Houston at 3 a.m. on September 10, a short message was
sent to Texas Governor Joseph D. Sayers and U.S. President William McKinley: “I have been deputized by the
mayor and Citizen’s Committee of Galveston to inform you that the city of Galveston is in ruins.” The
messengers reported an estimated five hundred dead; this was considered to be an exaggeration at the time.
The citizens of Houston knew a powerful storm had blown through and had made ready to provide
assistance. Workers set out by rail and ship for the island almost immediately. Rescuers arrived to find the city
completely destroyed. It is believed 8,000 people—20% of the island’s population—had lost their lives.
Estimates range from 6,000 to 12,000. Most had drowned or been crushed as the waves pounded the debris that
had been their homes hours earlier. Many survived the storm itself but died after several days trapped under the
wreckage of the city, with rescuers unable to reach them. The rescuers could hear the screams of the survivors
as they walked on the debris trying to rescue those they could. A further 30,000 were left homeless.
The bodies were so numerous that burying them all was not possible. The dead were initially dumped at
sea; the gulf currents washed the bodies back onto the beach so a new solution was needed. Funeral pyres were
set up wherever the dead were found and burned for weeks after the storm. Authorities passed out free whiskey
to work crews that were having to throw the bodies of their wives and children on the burn piles. More people
were killed in this single storm than the total of those killed in all the tropical cyclones that have struck the
United States since. This count is greater than 300 cyclones, as of 2006. The Galveston Hurricane of 1900
remains the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history.
*From the Developmental Educators’ Handbook, Betty and Jerry Woodfill, Editors/Authors
Account 1. - Mr. James Irwin (Pg. 57)
Account 2. - Mrs. Bergman (Pg. 96)
Account 3. - Alexander and Stanley Spencer - Two Boys (Pg. 107)
The boys told a remarkable story of their experience during the storm. “Storm warnings
were sent out on Friday but nobody paid much attention to them. Only a little blow was
expected, ” said Alexander. But then came the storm, and they were asked, “Were to frightened
much?” They said, “All night long the storm got worse, and we could hear calls for help. To
everyone who came to our home, we gave shelter. Once someone knocked on our door; when
we opened it a woman fell headlong across the doorstep. She had fainted from exhaustion.”
“A house was washed against ours. In it the wreckers found eight bodies. Our house
rocked dreadfully. It and the two house on either side are old, and no one thought they would
survive, but they did, the only ones to survive in that part of the city.”
“Our pet monkey drowned, but we saved the dogs, five big dogs and three puppies. All
we could do was thank God that He had given us a place of shelter which we could share with
those less fortunate.
Account 4. – Experience of a Young Girl (Pg. 172)
Account 5. – George MacLaine of St. Louis (Pg. 236)
Account 6. – Honorable Morris Sheppard in Union Depot (Pg. 263)
Account 7. – Mrs. Boss (Pg. 268)\
Account 8. – Miss Pixley’s Story (Pg. 273)
Account 9. – Rev. L.P. Davis (Pg. 293)
Account 10. – Rev. Palmer’s Story (Pg. 328)
Account 11. – Second Version Rev. L.P. Davis Story (Pg. 339)
Account 12. – Mr. Gray (Pg. 353)
Account 13. – A German Man (Pg. 383)
Account 14. Peter Brophey’s Escape (Pg. 384)
Account 15. A.C. Fonda (Pg. 387)
Account 16. Mr. J.T. Grimes (Pg. 437)
Account 17. - The Seaman (Pg. 447)
Account 18. - Charlie and the Piano (Pg. 450)
Account 19. - Mr. J. Martin (Pg. 475)
Account 20. - Zackary Scott (Pg. 477)
Account 21. – Henry Van Eaton (Pg. 478)
Account 22. – Miss Anna Delz (Pg. 495)
Account 23. - Mr. William H. Irvin