Hurricanes are known to be one of the most destructive natural forces on the planet Earth. On September 8, 1900, a massive hurricane came roaring out of the Gulf of Mexico and made landfall on the bustling island city of Galveston, Texas. This unprepared city and citizens were battered by gale-force winds and tremendous swells until it was completely destroyed by dawn of the next morning. This carnage preserved this storm’s place in American History and earned it the name The Great Storm of 1900. The Great Storm of 1900 was an immense hurricane which single-handedly changed Galveston’s local economy, Texas’ economy and influenced current hurricane forecasting techniques.
The Great Storm of 1900 affected the local economy of Galveston. Galveston Island is a 3 mile stretch of island on the Texas Coast that relied heavily on its shallow port for shipping. Galveston shipped nearly 64 percent of all cotton leaving the State of Texas prior to the hurricane that nearly wiped this city completely off the map. “In 1900, more than 2 million bales of cotton were shipped from the port at Galveston” (Ramos). Once the hurricane passed, the city was left in ruins and was not able to function as a civic environment, much less a port of shipping. The local economy was weak and all attention was paid towards rebuilding this port city into a habitable location. The shipping posture of this shallow-water port never reached the potential it once had prior to The Great Storm of 1900, due largely to the fact of its hurricane-prone location on the southern coast of Texas. Once the City of Galveston was rebuilt, the primary focus of the local economy was to be a desired tourism location. Even to this day, thousands of people flock to this quaint beach co...
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...orecast and track hurricanes throughout the world in order to prevent this type of devastation from reoccurring. With financial support and a strong will, this determined city was rebuilt from complete chaos and continues to thrive even after it was nearly washed into the Gulf of Mexico by gale-force winds and tremendous swells from The Great Storm of 1900.
Works Cited
Abbe, Cleveland. "September, 1900." Monthly Weather Review XXVIII.9 (1900): 371-377. Web.16 May 2010.
Ramos, Mary. "After the Great Storm: Galveston's Response to the Hurricane of Sept. 8, 1900." Texas State Historical Association: Texas Almanac. The Texas State Historical Association, 10 SEPT 2008. Web.16 May 2010.
Smith, Michael. "Post-storm rebuilding considered 'Galveston's finest hour'." The 1900 Storm: Galveston Island, Texas. The Galveston County Daily News, 09 SEP 2009. Web.16 May 2010.
Isaac’s Storm, by Erik Larson was a very fascinating book because it is difficult to say absolutely what the true subject of the book is. There are three key players in the book, first it is Isaac Cline a meteorologist for the U.S Weather Bureau, The U.S. Weather Bureau itself, and finally the storm of 1900. However, all three elements collaborate with one another in a significant way. The storm of 1900 is the main catalyst for one of the most devastating storms in the United States. However, the Weather Bureau and Isaac Cline both had an impact on the outcome of the catastrophic storm. The book generally focuses on the Galveston Hurricane of 1990, but more so the actions that Isaac Cline takes, or didn’t take rather. It was very tricky to
In the late summer of 2005, a terrible tragedy occurred that changed the lives of many in the south-east region of the United States. A Category 3, named storm, named Hurricane Katrina, hit the Gulf Coast on the 29th of August and led to the death of 1,836 and millions of dollars’ worth of damage (Waple 2005). The majority of the damage occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana. Waple writes in her article that winds “gusted over 100 mph in New Orleans, just west of the eye” (Waple 2005). Not only was the majority of the damage due to the direct catastrophes of the storm but also city’s levees could no longer hold thus breaking and releasing great masses of water. Approximately, 80% of the city was submerged at sea level. Despite the vast amount of damage and danger all throughout the city, officials claimed that there was work being done to restore the city of New Orleans as a whole but many parts, and even the people, of the city were overlooked while areas of the city with higher economic value, and more tourist traffic, were prioritized along with those individuals.
Once there was, as never before, a hurricane of great might and strength. As never before, there once was a hurricane of many names: storm, cyclone, tempest, typhoon, and flood. Yet it has lived on in history as the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900. Humanity has glorified and immortalized the hurricane. The Great Galveston Hurricane has been the subject of numerous articles, novels, plays, and poems, as well as four major nonfiction studies (Longshore). It is truly one of hurricane lore’s greatest of storms.
Not only was it Texas's major port, but unfortunately it was the Unions major target resulting in a Federal Naval assault. during the first year of the Civil War. Knowing the importance of Galveston to Texas, Federal troops in 1862. took the port and surrounding areas thus making it one of only a handful of Union victories in the Lone Star state. Fearful of losing their "property", many slave owners in the areas surrounding Galveston, fled the area into the North of Texas to avoid any clashes with Union troops.
Katrina is the costliest U.S hurricane, with estimated damage over $81 billion and costs over $160 billion.” The people that were affected the most was the poor people, children, the sick, and the elderly. Most of New Orleans was underwater; it was going to take a long time for the city to come back from this. “The The rescue and recovery efforts following Katrina became highly politicized, with federal, state and local officials pointing fingers at one another.” People didn’t get the proper warnings to evacuate. After the hurricane “Government officials have sought to learn from the tragedy and implement better environmental, communications and evacuation policies.” Ten years after the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina the city is still dealing with still trying to recover. The have lost a lot when the hurricane hit and it affected them financially, because of the popular areas that are in New Orleans. In all, almost everyone that evacuate from New Orleans fled to Houston which led to the population to grow, but also those that came to Houston had a different feeling about things. Houston has also had its fair shares has had 27 disasters- eight hurricanes, eight floods, six severe storms, three
According to Hurricane Katrina At Issue Disasters, economic damages from Hurricane Katrina have been estimated at more than $200 billion… More than a million people were displaced by the storm… An estimated 120,000 homes were abandoned and will probably be destroyed in Louisiana alone (At * Issue). For this perspective, “Hurricane Katrina change the Gulf Coast landscape and face of its culture when it hit in 2005” (Rushton). A disaster like Katrina is something the victims are always going to remember, for the ones the lost everything including their love ones. Katrina became a nightmare for all the people that were surround in the contaminated waters in the city of New Orleans. People were waiting to be rescue for days,
Hurricane Harvey was one of the most devastating hurricanes to strike the United States in several years. Harvey resulted in over eighty fatalities and over 150 billion dollars in damages. This proves to be one of the most destructive hurricanes to be recorded. The overwhelming damage was caused by many different aspects; however, three of the greatest aspects are: varying weather patterns throughout the storm, the city structure of Houston, Texas, and the lack of evacuation. Each of these factors affected the city in a different way, but all resulted in a common outcome, devastation.
A.S.A. & Co. “Hurricane History Facts.” New York Times, New York Times. 17 Jan. 2008. The 'Standard' Web.
The category 3 storm changed the lives of the residence who lived there forever. The storm in combination with the fault of the man-made flood protection walls (levee’s) resulted in the death of at least 1,300 people (1). With nearly half the victims over the age of 74, deaths were caused by; drowning, injury/ trauma and heart conditions (2). Hurricane Katrina was one of the most costliest storms to land on American soil, costing around US$135 billion in damages (3). Although the number of deaths caused by Hurricane Katrina are not as high as other natural disasters, Katrina displaced a massive amount of people from their homes, around 85% of the population were displaced directly after the storm hit (6). Being one of the most devastating natural disasters to hit the United States, Hurricane Katrina impacted not only the residence of New Orleans by also many of the surrounding
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans as a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale with winds up to one-hundred and forty miles per hour. Katrina was one of the costliest and deadliest hurricanes to ever hit the United States. One-thousand eight hundred deaths, seven hundred missing and one-million displaced is evidence of the human toll that Katrina caused and $84 billion in cost makes Katrina the most expensive natural disaster in United States history. (Blackwell) While these numbers are devastating, the environmental impacts of Katrina still threaten the citizens of New Orleans today. The environmental impacts from Katrina were compounded by man-made environmental hazards. (West)
When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, it caused immediate and significant damage not only to that regions economy but to the countrys as well.
Fink, Sheri. "Hurricane Katrina: after the flood." The Gaurdian. N.p., 7 Feb. 2014. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Hurricanes are one of the deadliest and most expensive natural disasters around. They are more common in areas of humid yet moist weather so they are very foreign to certain places. But to the places were hurricanes are the norm, the people take them extremely seriously because they kill people and ruin countless amounts of property. Hurricanes can attack and harm people in so many ways they can kill people, leave them homeless, it leaves children orphaned and disable them. On the west coast of the United States and other places hurricanes aren’t taken as seriously as other more common disasters, such as, earthquakes and volcanoes yet the hurricane can be a lot more damaging that both of those. Hurricanes are cyclones that develop over warm oceans and breed winds that blow yup to 74 miles per hour.
Hurricanes occur all over the world, at different times, but commonly through June first and late November. However in late August 2005 a catastrophic hurricane struck. This was Hurricane Katrina. With winds traveling over one hundred miles per hour making it a category five on the Saffir- Simpson Hurricane Scale it was said to have cause billions of dollars’ worth of damage. Hurricane Katrina flooded nearly forty thousand homes, and killed at least two thousand people (“Hurricane”). An average category five hurricane has enough energy to power street lamps for more than twenty seven thousand hours (Williams 58). Knowing about Hurricane Katrina, and the devastation of the city in New Orleans would be beneficial. Also, general information on hurricanes can help civilians and people of higher authority better understand and prepare for damage that could once hit their town and community. Because experts know the general information on these storms they can help explain to the public why and how Hurricane Katrina and other hurricanes occur. Hopefully, in the future civilians will know and use this information to their advantage against hurricanes.