DADvocate

Listening to the news on the way home from work, I heard that many people in Galveston were staying home and riding out Hurricane Ike. Bad idea.

Galveston has a very bad history with hurricanes.

The Hurricane of 1900 made landfall on the city of Galveston, Texas on September 8, 1900. It had estimated winds of 135 mph (215 km/h) at landfall, making it a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.

The hurricane caused great loss of life with the estimated death toll between 6,000 and 12,000 individuals; the number most cited in official reports is 8,000, giving the storm the third-highest number of casualties of any Atlantic hurricane, after the Great Hurricane of 1780 and 1998’s Hurricane Mitch. The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 is to date the deadliest natural disaster ever to strike the United States.

I watched a show about this hurricane on the History Channel (I think). The entire island of Galveston was under water. CNN has some excellent history on the Galveston Hurricane with video, pictures, etc.

I hope Galveston and Texas are spared serious damage but I wonder what it takes for some people learn that hurricanes are best watched from a great distance.