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Remembering the Galveston Storm of 1900
Produced by John Burnett

Galveston
Galveston, Texas - September 8, 1900
Photograph courtesy the Rosenberg Library.

  • Listen in 14.4, 28.8,
    or G2 SureStream.
  • Read about survivor
    Mary Louise Hopkins.
  • Read other
    memoirs from Galveston.

    "We heard soon the blinds and windows break in the rooms upstairs... It sounded as if the room were filled with a thousand little devils, shrieking and whistling... We all prayed. "
    ~ Louisa Hansen Rollfing

    In 1900, Galveston was the grand dame of Texas, a vibrant port city sitting hautily on a sand bar facing the gulf. The great hurricane arrived almost without warning, reducing the town to a splintered wasteland. Some 6,000 perished as survivors struggled to save themselves amid the towering waves, rocking debris, and floating wreckage of their city.

    "It's a sight I hope I shall never see again. Destruction and desolation; wreckage strewn everywhere, chaos, and that voice still ringing in my ears, 'Save me!' "
    ~ Arnold Wolfram

    Producer John Burnett revisits the worst natural disaster in U.S. history with recorded oral histories, memoirs, and correspondence - the weathermen, the children, the lovers - the survivors of the 1900 storm.

    "... The roof of our hotel had blown off and the bricks and stones were being blown off the building like they were little feathers..."
    ~ Charles W. Law


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