Lindsey Graham

Heads turn immediately.

Men and women eyeing your soaked, salt-crusted clothes with a mixture of curiosity and alarm.

But it doesn't matter.

You'll know they'll finally understand when the tracks run out and they start seeing the bodies.

From Audible Originals, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American History Tellers.

Our history, your story.

On September 9, 1900, a small group of survivors of the Galveston hurricane set out on an emergency mission to Houston, commandeering a boat and a rail hand car in order to make their way 50 miles north.

With Galveston's telephone and telegraph lines down, and all bridges onto the island destroyed, they needed to tell the world that their city was in desperate need of relief.

Because back in Galveston, only 24 hours had passed since an unprecedented hurricane had struck the city.

Days survivors grappled with unimaginable loss.

Thousands of homes had been leveled, and the island was littered with mountains of debris, animal carcasses, and corpses that signaled a death toll far beyond what anyone initially realized.

A thriving, cosmopolitan community had been torn apart, and now the survivors faced the staggering challenge of picking up the pieces of their shattered lives.

This is Episode 3 in our three-part series on the 1900 Galveston Hurricane, City of Doom.

The Sunday of September 9, 1900 dawned on a city in ruins.

In less than 24 hours, a vibrant and modern seaport full of homes, businesses, wharves, and warehouses had been reduced to a sodden wasteland.

All across Galveston, survivors of the hurricane emerged from their hiding places and took in the desolation.

The sky was clear and blue, and the sea was calm and quiet.

The flooding had receded, but thousands of homes had disappeared overnight.

And in the streets, bloodied men, women, and children stumbled, shocked, and confused.

Everywhere they looked, there were corpses.