The deadliest hurricane in United States history hit the coast in 1900.
The 1900 Galveston Hurricane began as a tropical storm in the central Atlantic on August 27. It followed a path south of Hispaniola and remained a tropical storm as it moved over Cuba on September 3 and 4.
It rapidly intensified September 5 and 6 and reached hurricane status as it passed just west of Key West Florida on the 6th. Reports of high seas, fierce winds and heavy rain were common in the Florida Keys.
The hurricane made an abrupt turn to the west in the eastern Gulf of Mexico on September 6 and began a journey that would lead to the Texas coast.
As the hurricane gained speed and intensity, residents of the Louisiana and Texas coastal areas began to prepare for the storm. No one could imagine what was to happen.
Dr. Isaac M. Cline, the meteorologist in charge of the local Weather Bureau lived on Galveston Island, just off the Texas coast. Cline was aware of a storm out in the Gulf based on previous reports from Florida. Although weather conditions were relatively calm on September 7, Dr. Cline observed the rough seas and the high waves that seemed to become more ominous by the hour. He sent a telegram to Washington, DC saying he thought a large part of the city was going to be underwater. He predicted a very heavy loss of life.
Cline took a horse-drawn buggy and rode up and down the beaches, warning residents to seek higher ground. Forty-eight people took shelter in Dr. Cline's house.
As the hurricane approached, the winds grew fierce and the tide rose quickly. Wind gusts of over 120 miles per hour pierced Galveston Island and the seas rose to over 20 feet in height. Thirty-two of the 48 people who took refuge in Cline's house, including his wife, drowned in the storm surge.
The Galveston hurricane was a category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. Over 6,000 people lost their lives (mostly in the Galveston area). More than thirty-six hundred homes were destroyed. Damage was estimated at over $30 million.
The storm maintained tropical storm strength as it tracked up through Oklahoma and Kansas. It then weakened and moved through the Great Lakes, over the St. Lawrence River and back out over the Atlantic Ocean.
