Weather Whys; The Galveston Hurricane

This is weather-wise. The Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900 ranks as one of the most devastating weather events in the nation's history. More than 6,000 were killed and 5,000 injured when the powerful hurricane swept through the port city. Storm winds were measured at 120 miles per hour, which would make it a category 3 on the modern Safar Simpson scale, or in other words, a dangerous storm worthy of respect. But as in many hurricanes, it was the water rather than the wind that proved most deadly. The storm surge, or the huge waves pushed on shore by the storm, put the city under as much as 15 feet of water. And the force of the waves crumbled stout buildings as if they were made of pards. One might think the huge storm had hit the city of Galveston without warning. After all, there were no satellites back then to show the storm's progress through the Gulf of Mexico.

But in fact, the residents had received some warning. The weather bureau had received reports from ships in the Gulf that a heavy storm was developing. And another warning was obvious to anyone with even a little knowledge of weather lore. The saying, red sky at morning sailors take warning is one of the best known of those old atages, and the dawn sky on that September 8th was a brilliant red. To weather bureau chief Isaac Klein, the signs were so clear, he drove along the beachfront in a horse-drawn cart, warning residents of the coming storm, and advising them to evacuate the island. But few heated his advice. Most of those who sought shelter only went as far as the downtown area. And for many, that proved to be a fatal mistake. Otherwise is produced with the assistance of the National Weather Service Forecast Office and the National Severe Storms Laboratory, both in Norman, Oklahoma, and is made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation. For weather wise, I'm Drew Barlow.