1900 Galveston hurricane

The 1900 Galveston hurricane (otherwise known as the Great Galveston hurricane and the Galveston Flood and known regionally as the Great Storm of 1900 or the 1900 Storm) was a catastrophic tropical cyclone that became the deadliest natural disaster in the history of the United States. The strongest storm of the 1900 Atlantic hurricane season, it left between 6,000 and 12,000 fatalities; the number most cited in official reports is 8,000. Most of these deaths occurred in and near Galveston, Texas, after the storm surge inundated the coastline city with 8 to 12 ft (2.4 to 3.7 m) of water. As of 2026, it remains the fourth deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record. In addition to the number killed, the storm destroyed about 7,000 buildings in Galveston, which included 3,636 demolished homes; every dwelling in the city suffered some degree of damage. The hurricane left approximately 10,000 people in the city homeless, out of a total population of fewer than 38,000. The disaster ended the Golden Era of Galveston; the hurricane alarmed potential investors, who turned to Houston instead. In response to the storm, three engineers designed and oversaw plans to raise the Gulf of Mexico shoreline of Galveston Island by and erect a seawall.

On August 27, 1900, a ship east of the Windward Islands detected a tropical cyclone, the first observed that year. The system proceeded to move steadily west-northwestward and entered the northeastern Caribbean on August 30. It made landfall in the Dominican Republic as a weak tropical storm on September 2. It weakened slightly while crossing Hispaniola before re-emerging into the Caribbean Sea later that day. On September 3, the cyclone struck modern-day Santiago de Cuba Province and then slowly drifted along the southern coast of Cuba. Upon reaching the Gulf of Mexico on September 6, the storm strengthened into a hurricane. Significant intensification followed and the system peaked as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of on September 8. Early on the next day, it made landfall to the south of Houston. The cyclone weakened quickly after moving inland and fell to tropical storm intensity late on September 9. The storm turned east-northeastward and became extratropical over Iowa on September 11. The system strengthened while accelerating across the Midwestern United States, New England, and Eastern Canada before reaching the Gulf of St. Lawrence on September 13. After striking Newfoundland later that day, the storm entered the North Atlantic Ocean and weakened, with the remnants last observed near Iceland on September 15.

The storm brought flooding and severe thunderstorms to portions of the Caribbean, especially Cuba and Jamaica. It is likely that much of South Florida experienced tropical storm winds, though mostly minor damage occurred. Hurricane-force winds and storm surge inundated portions of southern Louisiana, though the cyclone left no significant structural damage or fatalities in the state. The hurricane brought strong winds and storm surge to a large portion of east Texas, with Galveston suffering the brunt of the impact. Farther north, the storm and its remnants continued to produce heavy rains and gusty winds, which downed telegraph wires, signs, and trees in several states. Fatalities occurred in other states, including fifteen in Ohio, two in Illinois, two in New York, one in Massachusetts, and one in Missouri. Damages from the storm throughout the U.S. exceeded US$34 million. The remnants also brought severe impact to Canada. In Ontario, damages reached about C$1.35 million, with CAD$1 million to crops. The remnants of the hurricane caused at least 52 deaths – and possibly as many as 232 deaths – in Canada, mostly due to sunken vessels near Newfoundland and Saint-Pierre. Throughout its path, the storm caused more than $35.4 million in damages ($1.3 billion in 2023).

Meteorological history

The storm is believed to have originated from a tropical wave which moved off the west coast of Africa and then emerged into the Atlantic Ocean. However, this is not certain because of the limited observational methods available to contemporary meteorologists, with ship reports being the only reliable tool for observing hurricanes. The first formal sighting of the tropical storm occurred on August 27, about east of the Windward Islands, when a ship encountered an area of unsettled weather.

On September 1, Father Reese Gangoite, the director of the Belen College Observatory in Havana, Cuba, noted that the storm was in its formative stages, with only vague indications of a small tropical cyclone to the southwest of Saint Croix. The city was the fourth largest municipality in Texas in 1900 and had among the highest per capita income rates in the U.S. Galveston had many ornate business buildings in a downtown section called The Strand, which was considered the "Wall Street of the Southwest". The city's position on the natural harbor of Galveston Bay along the Gulf of Mexico made it the center of trade in Texas and one of the busiest ports in the nation. With this prosperity came a sense of complacency, as residents believed any future storms would be no worse than previous events. In fact, Isaac Cline, director of the Weather Bureau's Galveston office, wrote an 1891 article in the Galveston Daily News stating it would be impossible for a hurricane of significant strength to strike Galveston Island.

A quarter of a century earlier, the nearby town of Indianola on Matagorda Bay was undergoing its own boom. 1875 a powerful hurricane nearly destroyed the town. Indianola was rebuilt, though a second hurricane in 1886 caused most of the town's residents to move elsewhere. Cline further argues in his 1891 article that a seawall was not needed because he believes that a strong hurricane would not strike the island. As a result, the seawall was not built, and development activities on the island actively increased its vulnerability to storms. Sand dunes along the shore were cut down to fill low areas in the city, removing what little barrier there was to the Gulf of Mexico.

Weather Bureau forecasters believed that the storm had begun a northward curve into Florida and that it would eventually turn northeastward and emerge over the Atlantic Ocean. By the following day, a hurricane warning was in effect along the coast from Cedar Key to Savannah, Georgia, while storm warnings were displayed from Charleston, South Carolina, to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, as well as from Pensacola, Florida, to New Orleans, Louisiana. Cuban forecasters adamantly disagreed with the Weather Bureau, saying the hurricane would continue west. One Cuban forecaster predicted the hurricane would continue into central Texas near San Antonio.

In Galveston on the morning of September 8, the swells persisted despite only partly cloudy skies. Largely because of the unremarkable weather, few residents saw cause for concern. Few people evacuated across Galveston's bridges to the mainland, However, these accounts by Cline and his brother, Galveston meteorologist Joseph L. Cline, have since been in dispute. Although Isaac Cline is credited with issuing a hurricane warning without permission from the Bureau's central office, author Erik Larson points to his earlier insistence that a seawall was unnecessary and his notion that an intense hurricane could not strike the island, with Cline even considering it "simply an absurd delusion" to believe otherwise. Further, according to Larson, no other survivors are known to have corroborated these accounts.

Impact

Caribbean

Antigua reported a severe thunderstorm passing over on August 30, with lower barometric pressures and of rain on the island. In Puerto Rico, the storm produced winds up to at San Juan. Heavy rains fell in Cuba in association with the cyclone, including a peak 24-hour total of in the city of Santiago de Cuba. The city experienced its worst weather since 1877. The southern end of the city was submerged with about of water. Firefighters and police rescued and aided stranded residents. St. George, a German steamer, ran aground at Daiquirí. A telegraph from the mayor of Trinidad, who was asking for assistance from the U.S. occupation government, indicated that the storm destroyed all crops and left many people destitute.

United States

The hurricane caused great loss of life, with a death toll of between 6,000 and 12,000 people; the number most cited in official reports is 8,000, giving the storm the third-highest number of deaths of all Atlantic hurricanes, after the Great Hurricane of 1780 and Hurricane Mitch in 1998. The Galveston hurricane of 1900 is the deadliest natural disaster to strike the United States.

More than US$34 million in damages occurred throughout the United States, with about US$30 million in Galveston County, Texas, alone.

The hurricane occurred before the practice of assigning official code names to tropical storms was instituted, and thus it is commonly referred to under a variety of descriptive names. Typical names for the storm include the Galveston hurricane of 1900, the Great Galveston hurricane, It is often referred to by Galveston locals as the Great Storm of 1900 or the 1900 Storm. The hurricane left "considerable damage" in the Palm Beach area, according to The New York Times. Many small boats were torn from their moorings and capsized. The bulkhead of the pier was washed away, while docks and several seawalls were damaged. Rainfall in the state peaked at in Hypoluxo. High winds in North Florida downed telegraph lines between Jacksonville and Pensacola. In Mississippi, the city of Pass Christian recorded winds of . Tides produced by the storm inundated about of railroad tracks in Pascagoula (then known as Scranton), while a quarantine station on Ship Island was swept away.

In Louisiana, the storm produced gale-force winds as far inland as DeRidder and as far east as New Orleans, with hurricane-force winds observed in Cameron Parish. Along the coast, storm surge inundated Johnson Bayou, while tides at some locations reached their highest level since the 1875 Indianola hurricane. Winds and storm surge caused severe damage to rice crops, with at least 25% destroyed throughout the state. The community of Pointe à la Hache experienced a near-total loss of rice crops. Farther east, roads were flooded by storm surge in the communities of Gretna and Harvey near New Orleans, leaving the streets impassable via horses. Winds downed telegraph lines in the southeastern Louisiana in the vicinity of Port Eads. but they were both later found alive.

Texas

Nearly all of the damage in the United States occurred in Texas, with the worst of it occurring in Galveston. Angleton, El Campo, Pearland, churches, homes, hotels, and school buildings. Streets were littered with branches from shade trees and downed electrical wires, leaving several roads completely impassable to vehicles.

Galveston

left|thumb|215x215px|Loop of the path and [[storm surge associated with the 1900 Galveston hurricane]]

At the time of the 1900 hurricane, the highest point in Galveston was above sea level.

The highest measured wind speed was just after 6:15 p.m. on September 8 (00:15

 UTC September 9), but the Weather Bureau's anemometer was blown off the building shortly after that measurement was recorded. Contemporaneous estimates placed the maximum sustained wind speed at . However, survivors reported observing bricks, slate, timbers, and other heavy objects becoming airborne, indicating that winds were likely stronger. Later estimates placed the hurricane at the higher Category 4 classification on the Saffir–Simpson scale. Approximately 10,000 people were left homeless, out of a total population of nearly 38,000. Portrait and landscape artist Verner Moore White who moved from Galveston the day before the hurricane and survived, had his studio and much of his portfolio destroyed. The Tremont Hotel, where hundreds of people sought refuge during the storm, was severely damaged. All public buildings also suffered damage, including city hall –which was completely deroofed –

Three schools and St. Mary's University were nearly destroyed. Many places of worship received severe damage or were completely demolished. The few buildings that survived, mostly solidly built mansions and houses along the Strand District, are today maintained as tourist attractions.thumb|256x256px|Map illustrating the devastation in Galveston|alt=A map illustrating the devastation in Galveston. There is a dark shaded arch-area, demarcating total destruction in that region of the city|left

Early property damage estimates were placed at $25 million.

The area of destruction – an area in which nothing remained standing after the storm – consisted of approximately of land and was arc-shaped, with complete demolition of structures in the west, south, and eastern portions of the city, while the north-central section suffered the least amount of damage. In the immediate aftermath of the storm, a long, wall of debris was situated in the middle of the island. Because of the destruction of the bridges to the mainland and the telegraph lines, no word of the city's destruction was able to reach the mainland at first.

thumb|left|300px|Many who died had their corpses piled onto carts for [[burial at sea.|alt=A horse and buggy transporting bodies]]

On the morning of September 9, one of the few ships at the Galveston wharfs to survive the storm, the Pherabe, set sail and arrived in Texas City on the western side of Galveston Bay with a group of messengers from the city. When they reached the telegraph office in Houston early on September 10, a short message was sent to Texas Governor Joseph D. Sayers and U.S. President William McKinley: "I have been deputized by the mayor and Citizen's Committee of Galveston to inform you that the city of Galveston is in ruins." The messengers reported an estimated 500 dead; this was initially considered to be an exaggeration. The citizens of Houston knew a powerful storm had blown through and had prepared to provide assistance. Workers set out by rail and ship for the island almost immediately. Rescuers arrived to find the city completely destroyed.

A survey conducted by the Morrison and Fourmy Company in early 1901 indicated a population loss of 8,124, though the company believed that about 2,000 people left the city after the storm and never returned. On this basis, the death toll is no less than 6,000, while estimates range up to 12,000. Most had drowned or been crushed as the waves pounded the debris that had been their homes hours earlier. A number of fatalities also occurred after strong winds turned debris into projectiles.

Midwest

After moving northward from Texas into Oklahoma, the storm produced winds of near at Oklahoma City. The extratropical remnants of the cyclone then re-intensified to the equivalence of a tropical storm and continued to strengthen, In Illinois, particularly hard hit was the city of Chicago, which experienced wind gusts up to . In Wisconsin, many weather stations in the northern and central portions of the state recorded at least of rainfall, including a peak total of in Shawano. Heavy rains fell in parts of Minnesota. The Minneapolis–Saint Paul area recorded of precipitation over a period of 16 hours. Farther north, several washouts occurred, especially in the northern areas of the state. A bridge, along with a few train cars, were swept away during a washout in Cold Spring.

thumb|Weather Bureau map of the storm over the Midwestern United States on September 11

In Michigan, the storm produced winds around at Muskegon. Tides from Lake Michigan were the highest in several months. According to The Times Herald, the city of Marshall experienced "the severest windstorm of the season", which uprooted trees and damaged several buildings. Throughout the state, winds left at least $12,000 in losses to peach orchards, with many peach trees uprooted. Significant losses to apples and pears also occurred. Rough seas in Lake Erie resulted in several maritime incidents offshore Ohio. The John B. Lyon, a steamer, capsized about north of Conneaut. Fourteen out of sixteen crew members drowned. A survivor suggested that the ship being overloaded may have been a factor in its sinking. About farther north, the schooner Dundee sank, causing at least one death. In another incident nearby, the steamer City of Erie, with about 300 passengers aboard, was hit by a wave that swept over the bulwarks. The engine slowed and the steamers later reached safety in Canada with no loss of lives. In Toledo, strong winds disrupted telegraph services. Winds also blew water out of parts of the Maumee River and Maumee Bay to such an extent that they were impassable by vessels due to low water levels. A number of vessels were buried in mud several feet deep, while about 20 others were beached.

New York

thumb|right|A destroyed iron works in Buffalo|alt=Image showing a building damaged so badly that only the corner remained standing

Of the many cities in New York affected by the remnants of the hurricane, Buffalo was among the hardest hit. There, winds peaked at , downing hundreds of electrical, telegraph, and telephone wires, while numerous trees toppled and some branches fell onto roadways. An oil derrick blew away and landed on the roof of a house, crushing the roof and nearly killing the occupants. A newly built iron works building was virtually destroyed, causing a loss of about $10,000. At the Pan-American Exposition, the storm damaged several structures, including part of the government building, while two towers were destroyed. Losses at the exposition alone were conservatively estimated at $75,000. One death occurred in Buffalo after a woman inadvertently touched a downed electrical wire obscured by debris.

The rapidly moving storm was still exhibiting winds of while passing well north of New York City on September 12. The New York Times reported that pedestrian-walking became difficult and attributed one death to the storm. A sign pole, snapped by the wind, landed on a 23-year-old man, crushing his skull and killing him instantly, while two others were knocked unconscious. Awnings and signs on many buildings broke and the canvas roofing at the Fire Department headquarters was blown off. In Brooklyn, The New York Times reported that trees were uprooted, signs and similar structures were blown down, and yachts were torn from moorings with some suffering severe damage. Because of the direction of the wind, Coney Island escaped the fury of the storm, though a bathing pavilion at Bath Beach suffered damage from wind and waves.

New England

In Connecticut, winds gusted up to about . The apple crops, already endangered by drought conditions, suffered severe damage, with The Boston Globe noting that there was, "hardly an apple left on a tree in the entire state". In the town of Orange, twelve large tents at a fair were ripped. At another fair in New Milford, fifteen tents collapsed, forcing closure of the fair. Along the coast, the storm produced abnormally high tides, with tides reaching their highest heights in six years at Westbrook. Water reached the bulkheads and remained there for several hours. In Rhode Island, the storm left damage in the vicinity of Providence. Telegraph and telephone services were interrupted, but not to such a large extent. Some small crafts in Narragansett Bay received damage, while apple orchards experienced slight losses.

Lightning produced by the storm ignited several brush fires in Massachusetts, particularly in the southeastern portions of the state, with winds spreading the flames. In Plymouth and other nearby towns, some residents evacuated from the fires by boat. Most cottages around the Big Long, Gallows, and Little Long ponds were reduced to burning coals. In Everett, orchards in the Woodlawn section suffered complete losses of fruit. Two wooden frame building were demolished, while winds also toppled fences throughout the city. Winds damaged many telephone and electric wires in Cambridge. A lineman sent to fix the electrical wires nearly died when a pole snapped during a fierce wind gust. Orchards in the city suffered near complete loss and many shade trees were also damaged. At least a few chimneys toppled and several others were left leaning. A bathhouse at Harvard University lost a portion of its tin roof and its copper cornices. At Cape Cod, a wind speed of was observed at Highland Light in North Truro. Waves breached the sand dunes at multiple locations along the cape, with water sweeping across a county road at Beach Point in North Truro. A number of fishing boats sank and several fish houses received severe damage. One man drowned in a lake near Andover while canoeing during the storm.

Strong winds in Vermont generated rough seas in Lake Champlain. Early reports indicated that a schooner sunk near Adams Ferry with no survivors, but the vessel was later found safely anchored at Westport, New York. According to a man near the lake, all water from the New York portion of the lake was blown to the Vermont side, crashing ashore in waves as high as .

In New Hampshire, the storm left wind damage in the city of Nashua. Winds tore roofs off a number of buildings, with several roofs landing on the streets or telephone wires. Chimneys in each section of the city collapsed; many people narrowly escaped injury or death. In Nashua and the nearby cities of Brookline and Hollis, thousands of dollars in losses occurred to apple crops, described as "practically ruined". The city of Manchester was affected by "one of the most furious windstorms which visited this city in years". Telephone and telegraph communications were nearly completely out for several hours, while windows shattered and trees snapped. Street railway traffic experienced delays. In Maine, the storm downed trees and chimney and caused property damage in the vicinity of Biddeford.

Canada

From September 12–September 14, the extratropical remnants of the Galveston hurricane affected six Canadian provinces, resulting in severe damage and extensive loss of life. In Ontario, storm surge in Lake Ontario ranged from , wreaking havoc on vessels, beaching several boats, destroying a number of boats, and setting some others adrift. Many other vessels canceled or postponed their departures. Winds reached as high as in Toronto, breaking windows throughout the city. A fire broke out at a flour mill in Paris, and the flames were fanned by the storm, resulting in $350,000 in damages to the mill and 50 other stores and offices. High winds downed electrical, telegraph, and telephone lines in many areas. Total crop damage in Ontario alone amounted to $1 million. Impact to crops was particularly severe at St. Catharines, where many apple, peach, pear, and plum orchards were extensively damaged, with a loss of thousands of dollars. One person died in Niagara Falls, when a man attempted to remove debris from a pump station, but he was swept away into the river instead. Maximum rainfall in Canada reached 3.9 in (100 mm) in Percé, Quebec.

Survivor accounts

Writing from Alvin, Texas, on September 10, just two days after the storm, survivor Caroline Richardson described her family's ordeal to her brother in Michigan: "We have just passed through a terrible hurricane that killed little Ned and robbed us of house and home." She described her house collapsing around her, the kitchen going first, then the barn, then the roof carrying away just above her head, before the family spent four full hours lying in an open field without shelter, rain falling in torrents and the wind blowing without ceasing for seven hours. Her grandson, working on a dairy farm thirty miles away, had not yet been heard from. Her daughter-in-law added in a postscript that she had held her baby through the night while scantling fell around her.

D. G. Parker, writing from Port Arthur, Texas on September 13, described riding out the storm in his store building, bracing the plate glass front with long scantling to prevent collapse. His relief party, sent with ice and provisions to Galveston, returned reporting that "no tongue or pen can ever picture the awful ruin": the whole face of the island fronting the sea had been washed away for more than half a block in width, floating bodies could be seen everywhere in the bay and gulf, and the dead beneath the wreckage emitted odors so sickening as to be unbearable. The mayor of Port Arthur, who accompanied the relief party, estimated 10,000 dead as a modest figure, with many hundreds buried under ruins that could not be removed on account of the stench.

Aftermath

Galveston was effectively obliterated. With the city in ruins and railroads to the mainland destroyed, the survivors had little to live on until relief arrived. On September 9, Galveston city officials established the Central Relief Committee for Galveston Storm Sufferers (CRC), chaired by Mayor Walter C. Jones. The CRC was composed of subcommittees for specific aspects of relief efforts, including burial of the deceased, correspondence, distribution of food and water, finances, hospitalization and rehabilitation for the injured, and public safety. Contemporary accounts reported that 46 corpses were counted beneath the piling of a single wharf, and that nearly 100 persons had already been shot by authorities for either refusing to assist with relief efforts or being caught in the act of robbing the dead.

With thousands dead and roughly 2,000 survivors leaving the city and never returning according to a Morrison and Fourmy Company survey, Galveston initially experienced a significant population decline. Between 1907 and 1914, Congregation B'nai Israel rabbi Henry Cohen and philanthropist Jacob Schiff spearheaded the Galveston Movement. Cohen, Schiff, and others created the movement to draw Jewish immigrants away from the crowded area along the East Coast and toward cities farther west, such as Galveston. Although approximately 10,000 Jewish immigrants arrived in Galveston during this period, few settled in the city or the island, but about one-fourth of them remained in Texas. The 1910 Census reported a population of 36,891 people in Galveston. Although a decline from the 1900 Census, the population loss of thousands of people was nearly reversed.

In the months prior to the hurricane, valet Charles F. Jones and lawyer Albert T. Patrick began conspiring to murder wealthy businessman William Marsh Rice in order to obtain his wealth. Patrick fabricated Rice's legal will with the assistance of Jones. Rice's properties in Galveston suffered extensive damage during the storm. After being informed of the damage, Rice decided to spend $250,000, the entire balance of his checking account, on repairing his properties. With the duo realizing that they would fail to obtain Rice's wealth, Patrick convinced Jones to kill Rice with chloroform as he slept. Immediately after murdering Rice, Jones forged a large check to Patrick in Rice's name. However, Jones misspelled Patrick's name on the check, arousing suspicion and eventually resulting in their arrests and convictions. Rice's estate was used to open an institute for higher learning in Houston in 1912, which was named Rice University in his honor.

Rebuilding

200px|thumb|right|A plaque placed on buildings in Galveston to indicate which structures survived the 1900 hurricane|alt=A building with a plaque reading "1900 Storm Survivor", with the year 2000 at the top and 1900 again at the bottom

Survivors set up temporary shelters in surplus United States Army tents along the shore. They were so numerous that observers began referring to Galveston as the "White City on the Beach". In the first two weeks following the storm, approximately 17,000 people resided in these tents, vacant storerooms, or public buildings.

Winifred Bonfils, a young journalist working for William Randolph Hearst, was the first reporter on the line at the hurricane's ground zero in Galveston. She delivered an exclusive set of reports and Hearst sent relief supplies by train. By September 12, Galveston received its first post-storm mail. The next day, basic water service was restored, and Western Union began providing minimal telegraph service. Within three weeks of the storm, cotton was again being shipped out of the port.

Numerous cities, businesses, organizations, and individuals made monetary donations toward rebuilding Galveston. By September 15, less than one week after the storm struck Galveston, contributions totaled about $1.5 million. More than $134,000 in donations poured in from New York City alone. Five other major cities – St. Louis, Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia – had also donated at least $15,000 by September 15.