Lindsey Graham

Within a week of the storm, banks reopened, streetcars resumed service, and Galveston newspapers began publishing again.

Meanwhile, neighbors improvised, pooling whatever resources they had to rebuild their communities and daily routines.

Surviving houses of worship opened their doors not only to their own congregations, but to displaced worshipers across the city.

One Baptist woman recalled with gratitude how a Jewish synagogue welcomed her congregation after the hurricane swept away their church buildings and 50 of their members.

While still grieving the loss of his wife, Isaac Klein returned to work at the Galveston Weather Bureau.

And on September 28th, he read a five-page letter in the Houston Post written by U.S.

Weather Bureau Chief Willis Moore, in which Moore falsely claimed that Galveston had received hurricane warnings prior to the storm.

He also heavily exaggerated Klein's heroism on September 8th, claiming that after all communication lines failed, Klein had fought his way through the raging wind and rising water to a remote telephone station at the end of a bridge.

There, he supposedly sent the city's final message before the hurricane cut Galveston off entirely, only to return home afterward and discover that his house had been destroyed and his wife and child were gone.

Klein had long considered Willis Moore a friend, but he was troubled by the claim that the Weather Bureau had successfully predicted the hurricane.

He sent Moore a letter emphasizing that no warnings had reached Galveston before the wires failed, but Moore continued to portray the Weather Bureau as having expertly tracked the hurricane.

In Collier's Weekly, one of the era's most influential magazines, he claimed that the Bureau detected the storm early and issued timely warnings.

Cuban meteorologists countered these statements, publicly pointing out that they had accurately predicted the storm's Texas landfall, while the U.S.

Bureau was adamant it was heading for the eastern seaboard.

But most U.S.

newspapers accepted Moore's claims as truth and applauded the Weather Bureau's efforts.

The Boston Herald called the service excellent, the Buffalo Courier cited its advanced efficiency, and Chicago's Interocean demanded public recognition for the Bureau and its chief.

In the meantime, the residents of Galveston continued to reckon with the devastation to their city and their lives.

It was not until September 30th that a crew of workmen finally uncovered Cora Klein's remains in the mountain of debris south of Broadway near where Isaac's family had floated to safety.

Years later, he wrote, Even in death she had traveled with us and near us through the storm.