History Channel Video: The 1900 Galveston Hurricane

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http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5738477727172072633

If I ever get a book deal, and can get my to-be-found agent to take a flyer on a side project, I'm going to write a screen play that centers on the 1900 Hurricane. Texas A&M has a treasure trove of transcribed interviews from people who lived through it. So much drama packed into 24 hours, the story will write itself regardless of genre.
 
Not all that good. Reading A&M's transcriptions were better.

TWC just did a documentary on it as well, I"m going to try and find that online.
 
My great grandmother survived the hurricane on the roof of their home in Galveston.
 
Duane;4078920 said:
My great grandmother survived the hurricane on the roof of their home in Galveston.

Wow. Did you know her, or did she pass before you were born? I'd love to hear any stories that your family have from her.

I really can't imagine riding out a Cat 4/5 storm on the roof of a house with all kinds of stuff flying through the air, at night.
 
SaltwaterServr;4078853 said:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5738477727172072633

If I ever get a book deal, and can get my to-be-found agent to take a flyer on a side project, I'm going to write a screen play that centers on the 1900 Hurricane. Texas A&M has a treasure trove of transcribed interviews from people who lived through it. So much drama packed into 24 hours, the story will write itself regardless of genre.

I've seen this several times though it's been a couple of years since I last seen it. It's definitely worth watching. A great story.
 
nyc;4078932 said:
I've seen this several times though it's been a couple of years since I last seen it. It's definitely worth watching. A great story.

A lot of the quotes they use, with waaaaay over the top accents that bug the crap out of me, are directly lifted from the A&M files.

One specifically I remember reading was that someone's mother started screaming because as each wave hit, the wall and roof at the rear of the house were coming apart. That, and someone's mother or father going outside, getting an ax, and chopping holes in the floor so the water would come in and not tear the house off of it's foundations.

They pretty much skipped over how long afterwards they were finding bodies and how strict martial law was. If you were caught bending over while looking at a body on the beach you were considered a looter and shot on sight because you were probably stealing jewelry which was the only way they had to identify some folks as their entire families were dead.

There was one anecdote of someone getting caught out on the beach at night by US Army soldier who were stationed on the Island and in charge of security. They found him with a pocketful of rings and necklaces. Lined him up to shoot him right there, but his wife comes out from a behind a rubble pile. Same deal, both had been looting dead bodies. She was pregnant, so they were both allowed to live.

The last survivor found was found at sea, floating on a debris raft. That's one reason the death toll is so varied. Once the eye wall passed over the Island, it pushed a lot of people who were floating on debris out into the GOM.

It was a weekend, so Galveston had a lot of weekend visitors from the main land. Heck, they mention how many saloons there were, one on every block of downtown. Nobody really has any idea how many people had come into town for the weekend, and disappeared.
 
Galveston is my hometown. My paternal great grandfather lost his wife & 2 small kids. Their bodies were never recovered...he clung to a pole to survive. He was an immigrant from France....there are alot of stories from that horror. Brave souls!
 
SaltwaterServr;4078927 said:
Wow. Did you know her, or did she pass before you were born? I'd love to hear any stories that your family have from her.

I really can't imagine riding out a Cat 4/5 storm on the roof of a house with all kinds of stuff flying through the air, at night.

Unfortunately she passed before I was born and my grandmother has been dead for 15 years.

I just remember my grandmother talking about her mother riding the storm out on the roof and that some of the homes were destroyed really weirdly. Like there was a home that was torn in half with the china still in the cabinets.
 
SaltwaterServr;4078853 said:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5738477727172072633

If I ever get a book deal, and can get my to-be-found agent to take a flyer on a side project, I'm going to write a screen play that centers on the 1900 Hurricane. Texas A&M has a treasure trove of transcribed interviews from people who lived through it. So much drama packed into 24 hours, the story will write itself regardless of genre.

My great Grandfather and his brother lived through the Storm of 1900 on Galveston
 
Seems like several of us here have "great" relatives that were there. That's cool & sad at the same time...I know they use to have a museum on the Strand that had 1900 film & relics...but I don't know if it is still there. The saddest story to me is the nun that tied all the orphans together with rope & they all died.
 
DallasGirl50;4078996 said:
Seems like several of us here have "great" relatives that were there. That's cool & sad at the same time...I know they use to have a museum on the Strand that had 1900 film & relics...but I don't know if it is still there. The saddest story to me is the nun that tied all the orphans together with rope & they all died.

Things were so much different, the people had little warning of what was about to happen and of course with no Sea Wall in place the island was completely swapped. There were so many death that thay had to bring the bodies out to sea to bury then and many would wash back up on shore a few days later.
 
Doomsday101;4079020 said:
Things were so much different, the people had little warning of what was about to happen and of course with no Sea Wall in place the island was completely swapped. There were so many death that thay had to bring the bodies out to sea to bury then and many would wash back up on shore a few days later.

I am pretty sure my GGF's wife & babies were buried @ sea...that's what he always believed. The islanders were smart & industrious..rebuilding & putting in the Sea Wall. I love all the history there.
 
DallasGirl50;4079062 said:
I am pretty sure my GGF's wife & babies were buried @ sea...that's what he always believed. The islanders were smart & industrious..rebuilding & putting in the Sea Wall. I love all the history there.

The city was also raised

It's impossible to stand anywhere in the historical parts of Galveston and get exactly the same perspective a viewer would have gotten 100 years ago.

Everything is higher than it was back then, and some spots are much higher.

The feat of raising an entire city began with three engineers hired by the city in 1901 to design a means of keeping the gulf in its place.

Along with building a seawall, Alfred Noble, Henry M. Robert and H.C. Ripley recommended the city be raised 17 feet at the seawall and sloped downward at a pitch of one foot for every 1,500 feet to the bay.

http://www.1900storm.com/rebuilding/index.lasso

I have seen some old pictures my family had of catwalks built to allow the residents to get from 1 location to the other as the island was being raised. Today there are still homes there that the bottom floors are buried as the old granite homes could not be elevated
 
Yep, I supposedly had a great-great uncle (is that right? Great grandfather's brother) who perished in the storm...

I've seen that show in the OP, and IMO they put a little too much blame on Cline. He was just doing what he could with the very primitive (by today's standards) methods they had back then.
 

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