The Galveston Storm of 1900
Lost and Found Sound: Stories 'No Tongue Can Tell'
Galveston had no system to warn people about the killer storm. the Rosenburg Library hide caption
"We heard soon the blinds and windows break in the rooms upstairs... It sounded as if the room were filled with a thousand little devils, shrieking and whistling... We all prayed."
~ Louisa Hansen Rollfing
In 1900, Galveston was the grand dame of Texas, a vibrant port city sitting hautily on a sand bar facing the gulf. The great hurricane arrived on a Saturday in September, almost without warning, reducing the town to a splintered wasteland. Some 6,000 perished as survivors struggled to save themselves amid the towering waves, rocking debris, and floating wreckage of their city.
In this edition of Lost and Found Sound, producer John Burnett revisits the worst natural disaster in U.S. history with recorded oral histories, memoirs, and correspondence - the weathermen, the children, the lovers - the survivors of the 1900 storm.
"Destruction and desolation; wreckage strewn everywhere, chaos, and that voice still ringing in my ears, 'Save me!'" ~ Arnold Wolfram