Swallowed by the Sea:
First-Hand Accounts of the Storm
Once word spread of Galveston's destruction, help poured in from all over the world. Among the heroes was Clara Barton, who at age 78 directed the American Red Cross relief effort, the last mission of her career. In her report on the disaster, Barton described the sight that awaited her when she arrived in Galveston:
"It was one of those monstrosities of nature which defied exaggeration....The churches, the great business houses, the elegant residences of the cultured and opulent, the modest little homes of laborers of a city of nearly forty thousand people; the center of foreign shipping and railroad traffic lay in splinters and debris piled twenty feet above the surface, and the crushed bodies, dead and dying, of nearly ten thousand of its citizens lay under them."
Isaac M. Cline is most famous for his actions as Meteorologist in Charge of Galveston, Texas, during the Great Hurricane of 1900
In a special report on the hurricane, published in the Monthly Weather Review, Cline later noted:
“A heavy swell from the southeast made its appearance in the Gulf of Mexico during the afternoon of the 7th. The swell continued during the night without diminishing, and the tide rose to an unusual height when it is considered that the wind was from the north and northwest…” (NOAA )
Cline recalled:
“The street railway trestle was carried squarely against the side of the house like a huge battering ram; the house creaked and was carried over in the surging waters and torn to pieces.” (NOAA )
Ida Smith Austin, best known for her Bible class at First Presbyterian Church in Galveston, which she founded in 1884, lived with her husband, Valery E. Austin, at 1502 Avenue D.
November 6, 1900
“The story of Galveston's tragedy can never be written. Galveston! the beautiful Island city is hardly recognizable today. A storm had been predicted for Friday night the seventh of September, but so little impression did it make on my mind that a most beautiful and well attended moonlight fete was given at our home Oak Lawn that night.
I was busy about my domestic affairs Saturday rearranging my house...when I heard a man who ran up the street exclaim, "My God! The waters of the ay [bay] and gulf have met on Fifteenth Street." I went on the gallery to realize that what he said was only too true. But I felt no uneasiness and remarked to my niece, "We have nothing to fear, the water has never been over our place," and I just felt that it could not come. In a few minutes we heard the lapping of the salt water against the side-walk, and then it slowly crept into the yard.
In an incredibly short time the water surged ver [over] the gallery driven by a furiously blowing wind. Trees began to fall, slate shingles, planks and debris of every imaginable kind were being hurled through the air. We brought our cow on the gallery to save her life but soon had to take her in the dining room where she spent the night. Ten very large trees were soon uprooted and fell crashing, banging, and scraping against our house. We opened all downstairs and let the water flow through. Soon it stood three feet in all the rooms.
The wind seemed to grow more furious reaching the incredible velocity of one hundred and twenty miles an hour. Blinds were torn off windows, frames, sash and all blown in, and the rain water stood an inch and a half on upstairs floors. Then slowly dripped through taking paper and plastering from ceilings in rooms below. (News)”
Glossary:
Battering ram:Top of Form a heavy metal bar with handles used (as by firefighters) to batter down doors and walls
Debris: the remains of something broken down or destroyedBottom of Form
Fete: a large party
Gallery: an outdoor balcony
Monstrosities: an object of great and often frightening size, force, or complexity
Opulent: great wealth; rich
Swell: to form a bulge or rounded elevation
Velocity: quickness of motion; speed
Works Cited
Britannica. (n.d.). Webster's Third New International Dictionary Unabridged. Retrieved October 2012, from http://mwu.eb.com/
Lake, J. (2012, March). Swallowed by the sea. Cobblestone, 10-13. Retrieved from SIRS Discoverer database.
News, G. C. (n.d.). Through a Night of Horrors. Retrieved October 2012, from The 1900 Storm: Galveston Island Texas: http://www.1900storm.com/nightofhorrors/
NOAA . (n.d.). The Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900. Retrieved October 2012, from NOAA Celebrates 200 Years of Science, Service, and Stewardship: http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/magazine/galv_hurricane/welcome.html#pred
Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland
Curriculum 2.0- Grade 4 2012