Tomorrow, is the date of the anniversary. September 8, 1900 the hurricane that killed the most people in US history happened.
The incredible story is an example of how today's technology saves many, many thousands of lives.
Today, a similar hurricane striking the same area, would cause some fatalities but it might only be 1% of the 6-12,000 that were estimated to be killed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1900_Galveston_hurricane
The Great Galveston Hurricane,[1] known regionally as the Great Storm of 1900,[2][3][4] was the deadliest natural disaster in United States history, and one of the deadliest hurricanes to affect Canada.
On September 4, the Galveston office of the National Weather Bureau (as it was then called) began receiving warnings from the Bureau's central office in Washington, D.C., that a tropical storm had moved northward over Cuba.[6] At the time, they discouraged the use of terms such as tornado or hurricane to avoid panicking residents in the path of any storm event. The Weather Bureau forecasters had no way of knowing the storm's trajectory, as Weather Bureau director Willis Moore implemented a policy to block telegraph reports from Cuban meteorologists at the Belen Observatory in Havana – considered one of the most advanced meteorological institutions in the world at the time – due to tensions remaining in the aftermath of the Spanish–American War. Moore also changed protocol to force local Weather Bureau offices to seek authorization from the central office before issuing storm warnings.[21]
Aftermath
People rummage through rubble of destroyed houses in Galveston several days after the hurricane
House in Galveston on Avenue N, October 15, 1900
Weather Bureau forecasters believed the storm would travel northeast and affect the mid-Atlantic coast. "To them, the storm appeared to have begun a long turn or 'recurve' that would take it first into Florida, then drive it northeast toward an eventual exit into the Atlantic."[22] Cuban forecasters adamantly disagreed, saying the hurricane would continue west. One Cuban forecaster predicted the hurricane would continue into central Texas near San Antonio. Early the next morning, the swells continued despite only partly cloudy skies. Largely because of the unremarkable weather, few residents heeded the warning. Few people evacuated across Galveston's bridges to the mainland, and the majority of the population was unconcerned by the rain clouds that began rolling in by midmorning.
