Possumblog

September 8, 1900

The Galveston Storm, from the Library of Congress American Memory website.

On September 8, 1900, hurricane winds of at least 120 miles per hour ripped across the Texas coastline of the Gulf of Mexico, killing over 5000 people and decimating the city of Galveston. During the eighteen hour storm, tidal waves swept through sea-level streets, destroying homes and buildings and wiping out electricity, roads, and communication systems. As news of the disaster spread, supplies, including tents for the nearly 8000 homeless, poured into Galveston from across the nation.

Rebuilding Galveston involved construction of a reinforced concrete seawall and raising the city above sea level. Eight miles long and seventeen feet high, the massive seawall repells Gulf winds and water. Equally impressive, sand from the Gulf of Mexico was used to lift the city far above its previous grade. Ultimately, portions of Galveston lay fifteen feet above former levels. These fortifications continue to help protect the city from hurricane damage.

Galvestonians also transformed the structure of their city government. During reconstruction, a five-man commission replaced the mayor and board of aldermen. Initially viewed as an emergency measure, the commission form of government was so efficient that Galveston permanently adopted the scheme. The "Galveston Plan" was widely imitated by other cities and became a benchmark of early twentieth-century municipal reform. [...]

One hopes that America remains a nation of builders and doers.

Later update--The solution that Galveston undertook was massive, but it has one advantage over coastal Louisiana in that it is an island, and it has a more regular shoreline. New Orleans sits amidst a giant river delta, making it several orders of magnitude more difficult to do something such as installing a wall on a relatively straight beach.

However, there is no reason to believe that New Orleans could not better protect itself in the future. As long as everyone remembers anything man builds can be broken.

Posted by Terry Oglesby at September 8, 2005 12:31 PM