Peak Week

This week we head into the peak of hurricane season.

It is always a safe move to keep some extra cans of beans and corn on hand and know which couch cushion is hoarding the AA batteries, just in case the power goes out during a hurricane or any storm. While we may not have any severe hurricane predicated to come at us in the near future, the same could not be said yesterday, 120 years ago. Yesterday was the anniversary of the deadliest natural disaster ever to hit the United States, and it happened right in our backyard- Galveston, Texas.

It is credited with being the deadliest storm to EVER hit the United States.

The Storm

What is now described as the Great Galveston Storm of 1900 took the city by the horns and caused severe damage to physical properties and irreversible damage to families, with deaths estimated up to around 12,000. Streets were flooded, homes were flipped, and lives were destroyed.

Within the Rosenburg Library walls, there are documents of handwritten letters from survivors of the furious storm that plagued Galveston's city 120 years ago. One survivor, by the name of John D. Blagden, who was temporarily stationed at the Galveston Weather Bureau office, wrote letters to his family at home in Minnesota, painted a picture of the streets after the storm. In one letter, he wrote, "Hundreds are busy day and night clearing away the debris and recovering the dead. It is awful. Every few minutes a wagon load of corpses passes by on the street." 

Just Text Me

I get a text message from every single retail store letting me know for the 5th time this year that they are having their Annual Blowout Sale. The luxury of technology is real. At the click of a button, there is an endless sea of information at your fingertip. However, back in 1900, society did not possess that luxury. So when the storm began to hit Galveston's streets, there was only word of mouth to spread the news. So take a minute to remember all the innocent lives lost in a furious storm that struck Galveston 120 years ago.

What made this hurricane so deadly? Check out this video by Storm Shield on Youtube. Photo credit by Storm Shield.

If you are interested in learning more from first-person accounts of this devastating storm, click here. It's a link to the book titled 'Through A Night of Horror'  written by Shelly Henley Kelly and Casey Edward Greene. It's a collection of fourteen letters written by survivors immediately following the storm.

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Thankfully we have advanced weather prediction technology to help make sure history doesn't necessarily repeat itself. Here is more of what you should know when it comes to inclement weather.

KEEP READING: What to do after a tornado strikes

 

TIPS: Here's how you can prepare for power outages

 

 

 

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