It is not altogether unusual to find a storm that can destroy everything in its path. Nature can be cruel and unrelenting and a hurricane can be the big boys game in which civilisation cannot compete.

The great hurricane that hit Galveston, Texas at the turn of the century succeeded in the almost total ruination of the state. The contrast in Galveston’s condition before and after the hurricane struck is striking. Up until the storm, Galveston was on its way to becoming the most prosperous city in the nation, overflowing with commerce and other activities. On the 7th of September 1900 the society of Galveston were blissfully unaware that in just about 48 hours 8,000 of their 38,000 people would be dead, and their economically vivacious city would be transformed into a desolate wasteland.

The hurricane struck on the 8th of September and came as quite a surprise to the nation as there was no previous warning of the violent weather conditions that were heading their way. At this point in history, sophisticated weather and storm tracking devices had not even crept into the imagination of man; people heavily relied on the shippers who got caught up in the storms and news of this reaching the mainland. Isaac Cline – the senior Weather Bureau employee present at Galveston, recorded the events in his memoirs and states that the usual signs associated with the approach of a hurricane were not present in this case. The only clues to the advancing storm were strong winds and huge ocean swells on the usually calm seas.

In one report, the origin of the storm is said to have been based west of the Cape Verde Islands at the end of August. Throughout the beginning of September, the storm was moving over Cuba and developing into a full hurricane by the time it hit the Florida Keys. It was only on the 8th of September that any news had reached Galveston about the storm, when at ten past ten on that morning Washington warned the Weather Bureau that Galveston was right in the storms path. By the time the storm arrived in Galveston, winds were at their strongest at 135 mph, heavy rain was falling, and it was now obvious that Galveston and its residents were in the centre of a deadly storm surge.

This surge caused a massive quantity of water to come onto the mainland and effectively sweep at least 8,000 people to their death, and ripping everything down that it came across. There was nowhere to hide or shelter, as Galveston is predominantly a flat piece of land where not a single place stood taller than three metres.

Shortly after midnight the storm moved inland. However, that was not the end of that storm, as it continued with winds of 70 mph into the Midwest, the Great Lakes and effectively travelling half the world before it died somewhere over Siberia.

The aftermath of this deadly storm left 8,000 people dead, and buildings either badly damaged or just simply gone. This left corpses and pieces of infrastructure intermingled on the landscape, creating a nightmare environment. However, the citizens of Galveston did not let this storm totally ruin them, as shortly after they went about rebuilding their city, but with two important architectural changes: the creation of a huge 17 foot tall and three mile wide sea wall; and crucially, an increase in the town’s elevation. These additions proved effective when another hurricane hit the island on the 16th of August 1915, and the death toll came to only eight victims.

The power of storms is a frightening reality, but with meteorology as an advanced science today, we can be safe in the knowledge that warnings and evacuations are advance possibilities.

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