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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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From Audible Originals, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American History Tellers. Our history, your story. On September 8, 1900, a ferocious hurricane leveled the island city of Galveston. In the aftermath, what had been the primary port in the western Gulf of Mexico looked like a war zone.
Railroad and streetcar tracks destroyed, churches demolished, there were miles of wreckage, and the remains of human and animal corpses lay strewn all across the island. Between 6,000 to 8,000 people died in total. Nearly two-thirds of the city's properties were destroyed, telegraph power and electrical lines were down, and the bridges were gone.
This hurricane remains one of the worst natural disasters in American history, an absolute catastrophe, but also a catalyst for resurrection and reform, according to today's guest, Dr. Patricia Bixle. She's a retired history professor from the Maine Maritime Academy. Bixel co-authored Galveston and the 1900 Storm, Catastrophe and Catalyst with Elizabeth Hayes Turner. Our conversation is next.
Dr. Patricia Bixall, thanks so much for joining us on American History Tellers. Thanks for having me. So let's start with Galveston before the storm. At the turn of the century in 1900, the port had a population of about 38,000. It had a good natural harbor. Wharves moved cotton, food, and raw materials. It was a busy place. And you write that Galveston was vibrant and cosmopolitan.
If we were to walk around the streets of the city during the first week of September 1900, what might we have seen?
Well, you would have seen a very, very active port. Galveston is, of course, based on Galveston Island, which is a barrier island that parallels the Texas coast. It was the only natural harbor in the state at the time. So it was the major port of the area. At one point, something like 80 to 90 percent of anything coming into Texas came through Galveston.
And you probably would either be hearing about or looking forward to the Labor Day Parade, which was a huge event in Galveston at the time. Because of the economic importance of the port and all of the unions and all the men that worked in the port operations, there was always a massive Labor Day Parade.
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Chapter 2: What happened during the 1900 Galveston hurricane?
So, of course, without any protection from a hurricane, it was inevitable that one would come, and it sure did. The consequences were devastating. From your research, once people realized that this was no ordinary storm, what are some of the ways they tried to ride it out?
Well, unfortunately, that didn't happen until the storm was well underway in a lot of cases. People would try and go to their neighbors' homes up on higher pilings. They would go down to the business district where the buildings were also more substantial and built of brick and stone. At that point, there was really no way off the island. So you would go up to the upper floors of your house.
In some situations, people used axes to cut holes in their floors and open doors so that the water would come up and perhaps anchor the house rather than sweep it off its pilings. So to the extent that it was possible, people tried to get to higher ground or more substantial buildings.
About the middle of the late evening, I want to say, I believe it was around 8 or 9 o'clock, there was all of a sudden this rush of water. And looking back on it, we know that that was probably the storm surge. And the storm surge was about 15 feet.
And not only did you have the actual water that was coming from the Gulf of Mexico, you had all of the debris and all of the lumber and the stuff from the houses that had been destroyed that was being pushed by this water. And that in itself caused a lot of destruction.
The other thing about Galveston and its location is you not only have the Gulf on one side, but you've got Galveston Bay on the other side. So you had water that sort of met in the middle of the island that was coming both from the Gulf side, from the Gulf of Mexico and from Galveston Bay. But like I say, we know that this probably happened in mid to late evening that night.
And then the waters began to recede.
Now, this disaster was late enough so that there is photo documentation of the devastation, and your book includes some of these. When you look at the photos, what would we see?
You see swept landscapes. We were very fortunate in that when we did the book, we've got access to photographic sources that hadn't been used before. So there's materials from the National Archives and from the University of Texas and some other holdings around the country that people hadn't seen before.
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