The 1900 Galveston Hurricane | An Absurd Delusion | 1

0:28Hello, American History Teller listeners. on tickets and upcoming dates, go to AmericanHistoryLive.com. That's AmericanHistoryLive.com. Come see my Days That Made America tour live on stage. Go to AmericanHistoryLive.com.

0:51Imagine it's dawn on September 6, 1900. You step out onto the roof of the Belen Meteorological Observatory in Havana, Cuba, where you work as an assistant weather observer. You find your boss, Father Lorenzo Gungoita, in his black priest robe, staring up the sky. You hand him a cup of coffee, and he nods his appreciation before returning his gaze to the red morning clouds, his face etched with worry. What's wrong, Father? Have you ever seen such a deep red color in the sky? I suppose not. Those feathery cirrus clouds. Tell me, what direction are they moving? You take a moment to orient yourself and train your focus on the slow-moving, wispy clouds that resemble horsetails.

1:31It looks to me like they're headed northwest. Father Gongoyta nods, his mouth set in a grim line. This is the same system that pummeled Cuba over the past week, only now it's grown stronger. He sets his coffee on the parapet and pulls a small map out of his robes. We look over his shoulder as he traces his finger across the Gulf of Mexico from the Florida Straits to the upper coast of Texas. The U.S. Weather Bureau is saying this is an ordinary storm traveling northeast up the Atlantic coast. But everything I know about storms is telling me that's wrong. It's a hurricane, and a bad one, heading straight for Texas.

2:06Well, if you're right, then we have to warn them. I'll head to the telegraph station. The state weather station is in Galveston, right? No, it's no use. The Americans banned all Cuban forecasters from using the telegraph last week. Oh, you can't be serious. Why would they do that? I don't understand it either. Then I'll go to the U.S. Weather Bureau station here in Havana, Speak to the Americans directly. Oh, even if the Americans agreed to talk to us, they'd never believe it. They're completely prejudiced against us. It doesn't matter that we understand hurricanes more. There must be something I can do, Father.

2:36No, there's nothing left to do but pray. Gongoita retrieves his coffee and walks toward the stairs, leaving you alone on the roof. You stare up at the blood-red sky and shudder, feeling utterly powerless at the thought that no one in Texas knows what's coming.

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3:52From Audible Originals, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American History Tellers, our history, your story.

4:13On our show, we'll take you to the events, the times and the people that shaped America and Americans, our values, our struggles, and our dreams. We'll put you in the shoes of everyday people as history was being made, and we'll show you how the events of the times affected them, their families, and affects you now. In early September 1900, a tropical storm left Cuba and began barreling north toward Florida. In Washington, D.C., forecasters at the U.S. Weather Bureau announced that according to their calculations, the storm would travel up the east coast, spilling out into the Atlantic Ocean. But in Havana, Cuban forecasters disagreed, and instead they correctly predicted that the storm was a full-fledged hurricane and that it was heading straight for the Gulf Coast of Texas.

4:58But amid tensions following the Spanish-American War, U.S. government officials had banned all weather-related telegrams from Cuba. It was a decision that soon brought tragic consequences to the city of Galveston, Texas. At the turn of the 20th century, Galveston was the pride of the Lone Star State, a thriving cosmopolitan city and home to one of the nation's most valuable deep-water ports. But Galveston's prosperity masked a fatal flaw. The city was built on a sandbar island that rose less than nine feet above sea level at its highest point, making it vulnerable to floods. And on September 8, 1900, that vulnerability turned to tragedy when a catastrophic hurricane struck the city without warning.

5:41In less than 24 hours, a 16-foot storm surge washed over the city, unleashing violent waves that toppled buildings and dragged residents to their deaths. Between 6 ,000 and 8 ,000 men, women, and children lost their lives in what remains the deadliest natural disaster to ever hit the United States. Then, in the aftermath of the storm, the shock survivors embarked on a brutal struggle not only to rebuild their devastated city, but reinvent it. This is Episode 1 in our three-part series on the 1900 Galveston Hurricane, An Absurd Delusion.

6:17Twenty-five years earlier, on September 16, 1875, a lethal hurricane unleashed death and destruction on the town of Indianola, Texas. Indianola was the second busiest port on the Gulf Coast of Texas, and home to 5 ,000 people when in just a few short hours, 100-mile-per-hour winds and a massive storm surge washed ashore, killing hundreds and reducing most of the buildings to rubble. In the face of this unimaginable loss, the residents vowed to rebuild. But 11 years later, Indianola was just getting back on its feet when a second, even more destructive hurricane washed out the town completely. This time, the survivors left for good, and the once thriving port became a ghost town.

6:59Meanwhile, 150 miles up the coast, Indianola's biggest rival was booming. At the end of the 19th century, the island city of Galveston was the crown jewel of the Texas economy. Situated on a 30-mile strip of land two miles off the Gulf Coast of Texas, it was the state's leading seaport, a vibrant and cosmopolitan city home to 22 ,000 people. Cotton and wheat exports flowed out of Galliston's wharves, and its downtown thoroughfare was known as the Wall Street of the Southeast. It was the first city in Texas to have electricity, gas lights, and telephones, and it had a diverse population. It was home to a large German immigrant community, and one-fifth of the residents were black.

7:39Despite persistent segregation, there was still a strong black middle class, and black and white laborers worked side by side on the docks. The city boasted theaters, an opera house, and more saloons than New Orleans, with tourists flocking to its southern beachfront. But the geographic conditions that fueled Galveston's wealth also left it dangerously exposed. The city was on a narrow barrier island, essentially a long sandbar, 30 miles long and one and a half to three miles wide. Currents had carved a deep channel between the northern shore of the island and the mainland, creating Galveston Bay, the best natural harbor along the Texas coast.

8:16The island reached its highest point, less than nine feet above sea level, on Broadway, a wide boulevard that ran east to west, bisecting the city. From there, the land sloped south toward the Gulf of Mexico and north toward the harbor and bay. And with most of the city barely above sea level, flooding was common during storms. As a result, most buildings were raised up on pilings, and residents were accustomed to occasionally having to wade through knee-deep water in their yards and alleyways. They referred to these floods as overflows, treating them as a routine nuisance rather than a cause for serious concern.

8:50But in 1886, the destruction of Indianola sparked fears that Galveston could one day suffer the same fate. And in the weeks following that hurricane, Galveston's business leaders resolved to build a protective seawall before it was too late.

9:08Imagine it's April 1887, and you're walking into a meeting room on the top floor of an office building in downtown Galveston, Texas. You're a cotton merchant, and you're gathering with your fellow members of the local Progressive Association. For the past few months, your group has been lobbying for the construction of a seawall to protect Galveston from hurricanes. And now, two dozen faces watch as you stand at the head of a long oak table and hold up a piece of paper. Well, good morning, gentlemen. I come bearing good news. I just received a telegram from Austin. The state legislature has finally authorized a bond to pay for our seawall.

9:42So now all that's left to do is engage an engineer to oversee the work. One man seated at the table, a grain exporter with a sun-beaten face, clears his throat. Well, wait just a minute. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I've been thinking. And if word gets out that Galveston is building a seawall, it might scare off potential business. not to mention tourism. I mean, a seawall will do nothing but show that our city is vulnerable, and this association is meant to encourage business growth. The others around the table exchange nervous glances. You shake your head and stand a little straighter. Well, a hurricane would do far more damage to the local economy than a seawall ever would.

10:19We need to act now before what happened in Indianola can happen to us. Well, now, the Indianola hurricane, that was a freak accident. A freak accident that happened twice? They suffered two hurricanes, hardly more than a decade apart. Oh, just because it happened there doesn't mean it's going to happen here. You can't know that, and neither can you, but I'll tell you what I do know. I became a successful businessman because I know how to weigh risks, and this is one I'm willing to take. If you ask me, our association's time and money would be better spent modernizing the wharves. That would be true progress.

10:49Now who's with me? The man sweeps his gaze around the room. Some of the others are deep in thought, some nod enthusiastically. You fear that you're losing control of the meeting. So you walk toward the window and stare out at the view of the Gulf, just a mile away. Right now, everything is calm and quiet. But you know it won't always be this way. And if disaster strikes, this city will be left at the complete mercy of Mother Nature.

11:19In the months after a hurricane wiped out Indianola, a group of Galveston businessmen secured state approval and funding to build a seawall. But as memories of the hurricane faded, plans stalled. City leaders feared the project would scare away tourists and investors, and the seawall was never built. In their single-minded pursuit of growth, they failed to heed the lesson of Indianola. This false sense of security was reinforced by Galveston's chief forecaster, Isaac Monroe Klein. In 1891, Klein published an article in the Galveston News, in which he affirmed that no hurricane could ever do serious damage to the city.

11:54He described hurricane fears as an absurd delusion, writing, It would be impossible for any cyclone to create a storm that could materially injure the city. He framed the Indianola hurricanes as freak accidents and argued that Galveston could not share the same fate because for miles, the gulf waters surrounding it were relatively shallow. That would cause storm waves to break and spread out before reaching the city. He also insisted that the vast lowlands on the Texas mainland across the bay from Galveston would absorb stormwater before the island suffered any real damage. Isaac Klein was widely respected as an expert in the emerging field of meteorology, and his passion grew out of a lifelong interest in the workings of nature, stemming from his upbringing on a Tennessee farm.

12:37After graduating from college, he was recruited into the weather service of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, where he was trained in the new science of meteorology. But in the late 19th century, weather forecasting was rudimentary. Meteorologists analyzed cloud patterns and used simple instruments like rain gauges and barometers, and they relied almost entirely on land-based observations, because there was no way to track storms out at sea. So over the years, incorrect forecasts and one highly publicized employee scandal had eroded public trust in the Army's Weather Service. Americans also questioned meteorology more broadly.

13:12In an 1877 speech, the famous wit Mark Twain parodied the imprecise nature of weather forecasts, declaring, Probable northeast-to-southeast winds varying to the southward and westward and eastward and points between. Probable areas of rain, snow, hail, and drought succeeded or preceded by earthquakes with thunder and lightning. But Isaac Klein had high hopes for the potential of meteorology. During his training, he told his examiner that he wanted to do something that would give results beneficial to mankind. kind. He scored top marks and was assigned to a post in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he spent his spare time studying for a medical degree.

13:49After graduating, he was transferred to a weather station in Abilene, Texas, and attending the local Baptist church there, he met a young woman named Cora, whom he soon married. In 1889, Klein, Cora, and their two daughters moved to Galveston, where 27-year-old Isaac was tasked with cleaning up the local weather station, previously run by an incompetent Army private. Two years later, the Army's Weather Service was absorbed by the Department of Agriculture, where it became known as the U.S. Weather Bureau. Klein was put in charge of establishing the Bureau's new statewide service, headquartered in Galveston.

14:23Overcoming the years of neglect, he turned the station around, causing a government inspector to write, I suppose there is not a man in the service who does more real work than Klein. He takes a remarkable degree of interest in his work and has a great pride in making his station one of the best and most important in the country. Then, in 1892, Klein's younger brother Joseph, who was nine years his junior, moved to Galliston II and began working under Klein as the station's chief clerk. Joseph lived with Klein and his family in a two-story home three blocks from the Gulf, which Klein had ordered built on stilts to help it withstand storms.

14:58Two years later, in 1894, Cora gave birth to the couple's third daughter. Beyond Klein's family duties and forecasting work, he taught Sunday school and served on the University of Texas Medical School faculty, focusing his research on the impact of weather on health. He had sharp features, dark eyes, and a sober demeanor. And he was methodical about everything in his life, rigidly dividing his days into eight-hour periods of sleep, work, and recreation. And although he was outwardly self-effacing, he took deep pride in his forecasting abilities. He saw himself as a serious scientific expert who understood the weather better than most.

15:35But despite Klein's efforts in Galveston, the larger weather bureau still faced widespread skepticism. In July 1895, the Secretary of Agriculture fired the bureau's chief and replaced him with seasoned meteorologist Willis Moore. Driven by fear of public criticism, Moore tightened the bureau's oversight of its far-flung stations and enforced rigorous verification of forecasts. Then, when the Spanish-American War broke out in Cuba in 1898, Moore convinced President William McKinley to establish a hurricane warning service with stations in Mexico and the Caribbean. He argued that hurricanes posed a greater threat than enemy fleets and that reliable storm detection was essential to safeguarding the U.S.

16:16Navy. McKinley agreed, and Moore's hurricane warning service became the first U.S. effort to monitor tropical storms. Moore was convinced that this hurricane warning service would elevate the Bureau's reputation and increase his own stature. But soon, his distrust of Cuban forecasters would have disastrous consequences for Isaac Klein and the people of Galveston. They would be forced to pay the price for Moore's hubris and arrogance.

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18:40In the year 1900, Galveston, Texas was brimming with confidence and pride. The year before, it had surpassed New Orleans to become the leading cotton port in the country, and it was now the third busiest port overall. The population had grown by 30 % in the previous decade alone, bringing the total number of residents to nearly 38 ,000. The city had electric streetcars, local and long-distance telephone service, three big concert halls, and 20 hotels. It was served by 45 steamship lines, hosted 16 foreign consulates, and it boasted more millionaires per capita than the famously wealthy enclave of Newport, Rhode Island, with opulent mansions, gourmet restaurants, and grand churches signaling the city's wealth to newcomers.

19:25City leaders also believed that this astonishing growth was just the beginning. So in May 1900, they embraced an expansive harbor improvement plan, promising victory over Galveston's rival Houston, 50 miles to the north. But once again, they failed to make plans for a seawall. As spring turned to summer that year, Galveston struggled with punishing heat and nearly 100 % humidity. And the city wasn't alone. The summer of 1900 was unbearably hot across much of the United States. This prolonged heat warmed the waters of the Gulf of Mexico to bath-like temperatures, an ominous precursor to tropical storms.

20:01Galveston residents complained about the heat, but for the most part, the city was focusing on the upcoming cotton season in September, when the wards would begin handling exports. Willis Moore and his team at the U.S. Weather Bureau had also done little to raise the alarm. In August 1900, just as hurricane season was ramping up, Moore was focused on silencing Cuban meteorologists who had pioneered hurricane detection. Following the end of the Spanish-American War, the U.S. Army occupied Cuba, and the Weather Bureau established a headquarters for Caribbean weather forecasting in Havana, run by meteorologist William Stockman, who shared his boss's obsession with authority.

20:39Both were determined to assert greater control over forecasting while also looking down on Cuba and Cuban forecasters, expecting them to fall in line. In one report to Moore, Stockman complained, It is most difficult to get them to adopt any measures that radically differ from those pursued by their forebearers. Those measures had been long the domain of Jesuit priests who trained at the Belen College and Observatory in Havana, a Jesuit institution and renowned hub for meteorology, astronomy, and geophysics. Moore and Stockman disregarded and actively disparaged the skilled forecasters who operated in the tradition of the legendary Father Benito Vines, known as the Hurricane Priest.

21:18In the 1870s, Vines created a model for predicting hurricanes using meticulous observations of clouds to determine their location, speed, and direction. He also set up a network of hundreds of observers and messengers to watch for changes in weather and raise the alarm when storms approached. But although Cuban forecasts often proved more accurate than American ones, Moore and Stockman dismissed the Cubans as ignorant and overly alarmist. In an August 1900 letter, Moore described how his staff in Cuba were greatly annoyed by local observatories attempting to make weather predictions and issue hurricane warnings to the detriment of commerce and the embarrassment of the government's service.

21:56And by the end of the summer of 1900, American distrust of Cuban forecasters had only deepened. Stockman and Moore became convinced that the Cubans were trying to steal the Weather Bureau's observations to improve their own forecasts. They had no real evidence for these suspicions, but the disdain for Cuban meteorologists ran so deep that in August, Moore and his staff persuaded the War Department, which controlled telegraph lines in Cuba, to take drastic measures.

22:25Imagine it's late August 1900 at Camp Columbia in the U.S. Army's headquarters in Havana, Cuba. You're a Weather Bureau officer, and you're walking across the parade ground toward the administration block with Major General Wood, the American military governor here in Cuba. You swipe a handkerchief across your sweaty brow and glance sideways at him. Well, sir, peak hurricane season is upon us, and we simply cannot have these Cuban weather observers spreading panic about storms that only exist in their imagination. Wood brings his hand to his forehead to shield his face from the afternoon sun, his focus trained on a unit of soldiers marching across the grounds.

23:00Spreading panic? What are you talking about, Major? I want the War Department to formally ban these Cuban weather observatories from using our telegraph lines. I'm sorry, I'm not following. The U.S. Weather Bureau has trained its meteorologists to make predictions based on cold, hard data. But these Cubans, they're hopelessly unscientific. It's all romantic, mystical nonsense. They're always talking about the color of the sunset and always imagining the worst. They'll label any squall a hurricane. Well, they do strike me as rather naive. And when they cry hurricane, and those warnings reach Savannah and Charleston and Baltimore, they scare our fishermen and shipping freighters back into the harbors.