worst natural disaster in us history

worst natural disaster in us history

Exploring the Worst Natural Disaster in US History

1. Introduction to Natural Disasters in the US

This chapter explores the influence of disasters occurring when people are living in areas close to sea level; why such areas experience extreme tides associated with few natural disasters, notably catastrophic hurricanes; and what, if anything, should be done to mitigate catastrophic hurricane-northeaster damages. To provide a measure for the risk of hurricanes in Florida, the first section views landfalling hurricanes that caused property and crop damages of $1 billion (1991) or more. The second section explores landfalls of hurricanes and major hurricanes. Characteristics of droughts and beach erosion events are discussed in, respectively, the third and fourth sections. To study the worst natural disaster in the US completed in 1928—the hurricane that struck the west coast of Florida—the fifth section, Hurricane San Filipe-Okeechecskee, is presented. Required changes in hurricane forecasting, the National Flood Insurance Program, and state coastal land use and land use restrictions are outlined in the conclusions.

From fierce hurricanes and fierce northeasters to droughts and beach erosions, the US witnesses many natural disasters each year. Although disasters can occur in any month, they occur more frequently and with greater severity at certain times of the year. Since 1953, seven large hurricanes have caused death and destruction in Florida, with damages totaling about $10 billion (1991 equivalents). In 1992, two major hurricanes struck southern Florida, causing a total of more than $30 billion in damages. On the other hand, most northeasters cause tides no larger than about 4 feet along the coast. However, once in a while, these storms cause tides 4 ft or more higher than predicted. Unfortunately, strong hurricanes and strong winter storms can cause large tides. Flood damages in the United States are estimated to average more than $2 billion a year.

2. The Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900: A Devastating Catastrophe

The storm frightened those who lived in Gulf coast and tradition and folklore kept the memory of what Galvestonians termed an Act of God alive within the memory of that city’s inhabitants. Visitors to the city also knew of the hurricane and that unique community that rose up from the deadly September 8, 1900, Galveston hurricane, and were interested in seeing the various displays and remembering the tragic event. More than a half century after the storm had taken so many lives, incoming residents into Galveston had frequent reason to recognize the hurricane. The 1957 (Carla) and 1960 (Don’t know) hurricanes passed very close to the District of Galveston, and most of the present day inhabitants have recollections of those too-close calls. These near miss storms, and other severe weather events, have regularly captured the man’s attention and created a quest to uncover layers of information to understand such a unique storm and remarkable community. What follows are the salient details of the storm, the hurricane’s human victims and survivors, and the destruction of the community.

On the morning of September 8, an immense hurricane passed in from the Gulf of Mexico onto the southern coast of the United States near the District of Galveston, Texas. The massive storm brought with it flooding, immense wind, and widespread destruction as it moved inward from the sea, continuing for another thirteen hours over the mainland and adjoining Gulf coast sections. The storm began taking lives soon after it reached the mainland and finally began to diminish, permitting the survivors to assess the extent of the carnage. The number of persons killed was immense, numbering between 6,000 and 8,000, with the actual count never known given the number of bodies and estimates of much higher death rates for those killed in the slaves’ quarters and the nearby blocking areas in Galveston. An additional four to five thousand people were injured or missing, with property and other economic losses estimated in the millions of (1900) dollars. Meteorologists called the killer cyclone, on-site inquiries and accepted theories advanced and promulgated that the hurricane was a “storm of barely passing interest.”

3. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s: Environmental and Agricultural Crisis

Topsoil had flowed into rivers until the lower Missouri was unnavigable by any but the lightest boats. Sediment had been carried across the Atlantic so as to stain laundry in Greece. Moydrops of the wind in a thunderstorm in New York City. Although the problem was a production one, urban America was as involved as its breadbasket. Most everywhere, the Bad Spots of the 1930s were called Hooversvilles. But not the ones along the “dust tracks” charted by Jeannie, whose pa slowly lost heart in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. The dust storm occurring on May 11-12, 1934, was the most spectacular one of the 1930s. A few people whose memories begin in the 30s still remember it now and then, distantly, they become almost things about the beginnings of things.

By the year 1930, agriculture had reached the pinnacle of entanglement with ecological processes. 24,000 square miles in America had not a single tree. Over-farming of the fertile prairie soils to the point of exhaustion had caused farmers to suffer. This was a usual manifestation of the idea that wealth could be had without limit as long as sweat went in. In its immediate aspect, the disaster was a prolonged drought. But until industrial overproduction had disadvantaged the farmers, until eco-disruptions had left the region with minor rain drainage, and until rapid settlement had changed the environmental system, there might have been severe short-term harm, but the weather of the area could not have created the Dust Bowl.

4. Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned and Impact on New Orleans

In the case of New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina created isolated, vulnerable people and then compounded their problems with a dysfunctional disaster response. Each of the four groups we previously described in Understanding Katrina and the Dilemma of the Return to New Orleans received differential benefits. Those who received the most assistance from relatives and the higher societal resources had more options about where to live, but the uncertainty of the situation typically led to emotional fatigue and feelings of hopelessness for NOLA. The starkest difference is between the level of despair shown by the older men of EDMA, who were often unemployed and not generally receiving support from their families, and the determination of those in the other groups. Prominent people in a position to truly influence the future of New Orleans who exploit those with precarious social resources should remember that “what goes around, comes around.”

5 Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned

This fourth section of the book has two objectives. First, we discuss what we have learned about treating people with long-term psychiatric and substance abuse problems that reduce their resilience following disasters. Second, we discuss structural issues and problems more generally in trying to deal with the longer-term health needs for all who live in the disaster area.

5. Conclusion and Reflections on Resilience in the Face of Natural Disasters

What would happen if another 1900-strength hurricane struck Galveston again? Would the city since the 1900 Galveston hurricane have done things differently? There are surely some similarities between Hurricane Harvey-related flooding and Galveston’s 1900 hurricane, such as the potential for catastrophic flooding, with lasting damages and many lingering questions about what might have been done differently. These are the underlying questions that this report and its background research seek to address. In the remainder of this reflection report, we will attempt to be scholarly and fair-minded, as well as succinct. We have tried to put our statements in their proper context, but also to provide clear portraits, discussion, and evaluation of what has happened since the 1900 hurricane marked Galveston as the showcase for all American coastal cities that would confront disaster: in focusing on preparedness, resistance, recovery, and resilience within the report.

In the early hours of September 8, 1900, a hurricane slammed into the booming port city of Galveston, Texas. Known as the “Island of Sand” at the time, Galveston and its many inhabitants, including refugees from the 188 Galveston fire, were likely unprepared for a severe storm to take the trajectory that the Great Galveston hurricane took – running south of Puerto Rico before making landfall in Cuba, sliding gently into the Gulf, and absorbing energy from warm Gulf water. In doing so, the fiercely energetic storm preserved itself for a calamitous final push as it, full of energy, collapsed and released the power of a hydroelectric bomb. The storm is thought to have had an intensity of about 150 mph when it made landfall, and about 3,500 people were buried in unmarked mass graves because families were too grief-stricken or because bodies were unidentifiable at the time. Galveston was dramatically altered, but if not for the hurricane, it might have lost its status as the primary port city to Houston years later.