The mainland for several miles back of the bay is very low, in fact much of it is lower than Galveston Island, and it is so frequently overflowed by high tide that large areas present a marshy appearance. There are channels in the harbor with a depth of thirty to thirty-five feet, and there is an area of nearly two thousand acres with an anchorage depth of eighteen feet or more. The channel between the jetties is twenty-seven to thirty feet in depth at different stages of the tide. The main bay discharges into the Gulf between the jetties the south one being built out from the northeast end of Galveston Island and the north one from the most southerly point of Bolivar Peninsula.
That portion of the bay which separates the island west of Galveston from the mainland is very narrow, being only about two miles in width in places, and discharges into the Gulf of Mexico through San Louis Pass. The greater portion of the bay lies due north of Galveston. The length of the bay along shore is about fifty miles and its greatest distance from the Gulf coast is about twenty-five miles. Inside of Galveston Island and Bolivar Peninsula is Galveston bay, a shallow body of water with an area of nearly five hundred square miles. To the northeast of Galveston is Bolivar Peninsula, a sand spit about twenty miles in length and varying in width from one-fourth of a mile to about three miles. The City of Galveston is located on the east end of the island. The course of the island is southwest to northeast, parallel with the southeast coast of the State. It is a sand island about thirty miles in length and one and one-half to three miles in width. The ruin which it wrought beggars description, and conservative estimates place the loss of life at the appalling figure, 6,000.Ī brief description of Galveston Island will not be out of place as introductory to the details of this disaster. The hurricane which visited Galveston Island on Saturday, September 8, 1900, was no doubt one of the most important meteorological events in the world's history. Cline, Local Forecast Official and Section Director SPECIAL REPORT ON THE GALVESTON HURRICANEīy Isaac M. This particular report is excerpted from the Monthly Weather Review for September, 1900. In a later biographical work, he referred to the shooting of hundreds of looters by vigilantes in the aftermath of the storm and the cremation of hundreds of unknown storm victims who otherwise would have decomposed where they lay. He was probably still in shock when he wrote this report, as he lost his wife and virtually all his possessions when his house collapsed during the storm. The horror of Galveston is only partly described in this work. Cline, the senior Weather Bureau employee present at Galveston, of the events leading up to the storm, his personal experiences in the storm, and the aftermath.
As a result, much of the city was destroyed and at least 6,000 people were killed in a few hours' time. In the early evening hours, a hurricane came ashore at Galveston bringing with it a great storm surge that inundated most of Galveston Island and the city of Galveston. On September 8, 1900, the greatest natural disaster to ever strike the United States occurred at Galveston, Texas.