Dr. Patricia Bixel

There were terrible stories told about looting and vandalism and the robbing of bodies and that sort of thing.

There is a whole genre of literature that comes out about the storm.

The local coverage by the press is more realistic and more authentic about exactly what was going on, as you might imagine.

Clarence Owsley, who is one of the leaders in Galveston, eventually publishes an antidote to all the sensationalized press in order to raise money to reopen the schools.

And this, at the time, becomes the best of the accounts out there.

It takes a while for people to get there.

I mean, it takes a while for people to actually get on the island.

You have Clara Barton writing letters and describing what she's seeing, but it takes a while for the rest of the country's press to get a grasp on exactly what's been happening.

So there eventually developed warehouses down in the Strand District, in the business district.

And the warehouses would distribute goods and food and other necessary items to the individual wards.

And then in the wards, the daily distribution would happen for people that came seeking goods and seeking food and things that they needed for their households.

Immediately, of course, it was finding food.

It was finding people, their own friends and family that they were looking for.

Of course, it was finding housing.

You could go to the Red Cross and you could apply for a commissary house.

You could see if they would build you a small house.

Otherwise, they rebuilt as they could.

You had what were called storm houses, which people took the lumber that had been from the destroyed houses and they rebuilt sheds and shacks and houses for themselves on a temporary basis.

Eventually, the water system gets put back online and you can get fresh water.

And the other thing coming onto the island at this time period is a whole bunch of building materials.