Description
With more than 6,000 souls lost in the 1900 Galveston Hurricane, the enormity of the disaster overshadows the ordeals suffered by those individuals who somehow managed to survive. Yet their stories, their tragedies and triumphs, reveal much — not only about the most devastating natural disaster in US history, but also of the endurance of the human spirit. Here, rare, powerful, and evocative photographs combine with numerous first-hand testimonials to provide, on a human scale, a picture of what occurred during and after the storm. During the terrible deluge on the night of 8 September. S W Clinton lost his wife and six children, including two sons whom he could not save from drowning before his very eyes. Yet others survived. Long engaged, Ernest A Mayo and Bessie Roberts decided it was better to face the daunting tasks ahead of them together, and were married a mere five days after the flood. Their stories, and the stories of all who survived the great Galveston Hurricane of 1900, attest to humanity’s ability to overcome even the most horrific of disasters.
