Thomas F. (hardtack) - , reviewed on 5/30/2022 + 2701 more book reviews

I've wanted to read this book for a long time and finally got around to it, and I wasn't disappointed. It was a fascinating look at the worst hurricane to hit the U.S. What made it even more interesting was top level U.S. weather bureaucrats were partially responsible for the deaths and devastation and yet---after the storm---they lied and took credit for saving lives. Things haven't changed much, as we have top level U.S. bureaucrats doing the same today.

But I'd like to share with you some of the interesting trivia from the book. Weather experts at the time estimated the wind velocity of the hurricane hitting Galveston at 120 mph. Latter day scientists, reviewing the data, estimated there were gusts of 200 mph. During the storm the winds were so powerful, a "...board measuring four feet by six inches pierced..." a ship's hull. Not impressed? Well the ship's hull consisted of 1 inch thick iron plates.

The storm surge from the hurricane was 15 feet high and pushed debris for miles through Galveston and across the prairie. To understand why the storm surge created such devastation you need to know that "...a single cubic yard of water weights about fifteen hundred pounds. A wave fifty feet long and ten feet wide has a static weight of over eighty thousand pounds. Moving at thirty miles an hour, it generates forward momentum of over two million pounds..." This is why much of Galveston simply didn't exist after the hurricane.

I also found it interesting that donations of clothing to the Red Cross to help the victims of the hurricane were mostly thrown away, as they were either useless or shoddy. I'm reminded of stories of recent U.S. hurricanes where people from across the U.S. donate all kinds of clothing and most of it just sits in huge piles and rots. Because it is not what the survivors need. At least someone back in 1900 had some understanding of what the Galveston survivors needed, as one ship which arrived to help carried one hundred thousand gallons of water. When Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast, scores of tractor-trailer loads of water were not allow to enter the area because they weren't FEMA authorized. Another good example of "I'm from the Government. I'm here to help you."

Today, with the oceans in a warming trend, it pays to understand what this hurricane did, as many of us will be experiencing the same. I had the experience of riding out a typhoon in the South China Sea in the early 1970s, while on a LST. Not something I'd want to do again. But two days later we pulled into Hong Kong and saw just how powerful the storm was. I saw huge freighters sitting on shore hundreds of feet from the water, and one small island had a freighter sitting on a hill. Its hull was cracked, with part of the ship of either side of the hill.

I live in Florida, miles from the coast, but I still have one or two weeks of water and canned or dry food in my pantry. When a storm comes I don't have to fight traffic to buy the supplies I need, only to find empty shelves. More people need to do this.

Finally, here is one last bit of Galveston trivia. In 1900, before the storm hit, the city had 500 saloons. Well, at least the people who lived there had their priorities right. :-)

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