Lindsey Graham

Isaac recognized his wife's body from the diamond ring on her finger, which he kept and later wore as a memento.

In the end, Cora was one of the few hurricane victims given a burial.

As funeral pyres for other victims continued burning through October, crews worked to repair Galveston's damaged wharves and warehouses, while also completing construction on scores of new houses.

On October 14th, 30,000 bales of cotton left Galveston's port, something the city celebrated as a sign of recovery.

By October 22nd, schools began to reopen, though extensive damage and racial segregation created overcrowding problems.

The situation was especially dire for Black students.

One all-Black school was destroyed, and another would be unusable for months, leaving students from all three segregated Black schools to squeeze into a single small elementary school.

Finally, on October 25th, the relief stations closed, followed soon after by the Red Cross warehouse and orphanage, whose wards have been sent to live with relatives or placed with new families.

In mid-November, Clara Barton at last left town, confident that Galveston was firmly on the road to recovery.

And as the Central Relief Committee disbanded, its members looked back on their extraordinary efforts.

Over $1.25 million were raised, streets cleared of debris, businesses reopened, homes reoccupied, and ships once again filling the wharfs.

By New Year's Eve 1900, Galveston was a city reborn.

but already residents were contemplating radical changes to make sure nothing like the events of September 8th ever happened again.

Imagine it's January 1901 in Galveston, Texas.

You're a local cotton exporter, and you're walking along the wars with George Hodges, a prospective investor visiting from Chicago.

Carpenters are busy putting the finishing repairs on your warehouse, which was destroyed in the hurricane.

You turn your gaze from the workmen to Hodges, trying to gauge his interest.

So you can see, the whole city's made remarkable progress these past few months.

Soon you won't even be able to tell there was a hurricane.

Hodges nods, tilting his neck as he watches the carpenter fit a window into place.