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This documentary recounts the events leading up to one of the worst natural disasters in American history - the hurricane that destroyed the third largest seaport in America - Galveston Island.
In 1900, the island's highest point was only 9 feet above sea level. On
Friday, September 7, word was received from ships of a tropical storm heading
into the Gulf of Mexico - reports came in to Isaac Cline, the local meteorologist.
On Saturday, September 8, the hurricane swept across the island with devastating
winds and a tidal surge that wiped out the bridge connecting the island
to the mainland, so all means of escape during the storm and aid to the
island after the storm were made that much more difficult. When the weather
cleared the next day, 6000 people (out of a population of 38,000) were
missing presumed dead and two-thirds of the city was destroyed.
The story of the survivors are amazing: 400 people took shelter in the city hall; Daisy Thorn stayed in her apartment on the second floor and watched as the rising waters flooded the first floor - her apartment was the only one out of 64 rooms that was not destroyed. The stories of the less fortunate are tragic - 10 nuns and 96 children from the orphanage tied themselves together and sang hymns as the orphanage sank, only 3 boys survived.
The aftermath of the storm is the hardest part to think about - several children were found still tied together, bodies were everywhere (attempts at burial-at-sea led to a grisly experience as the bodies washed back on shore and had to be burned), all assistance had to be brought over from the mainland by boat. The stories are horrific, but the documentary also talks about the will of the survivors to rebuild and to make sure a tragedy of this magnitude never happens again. To prevent another catastrophe, the citizens of Galveston Island built a sea wall, raised the level of the entire city 17 feet, and rebuilt everything. It's with a sense of civic pride that the people of Galveston remain.
Through accounts of survivors (some born before the turn of the century), photographs, and footage of the aftermath, the grim story is told. The documentary even includes some actual movie pictures of the wreckage taken by Thomas Edison's assistant, Albert E. Smith, who snuck onto the island posing as a surveyor.
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