In 1900, Galveston was nearly erased

nydailynews ^ | Saturday, September 13th 2008, | CORKY SIEMASZKO

[Orange1998]

I too have not heard much whining. Most homes around 61st had 6-7 feet of water.

[Texas56]

I live in northwest Harris County, and I was in Galveston last weekend for the first time since the storm.

You can still see some devastation(some boats are in parking lots and some structural damage is obvious), but for the most part, the city is trying to get back on its feet.

I agree IKE didn’t get the media play that Katrina got. I guess 2-4 million people without water and electricity for weeks wasn’t newsworthy enough.

But you are right, other than being aggravated over lack of water and electricity for 1-3 weeks, most people just picked up and worked out the storm issues themselves. They re-roofed, picked up debris, removed trees from their houses, and rebuilt fences without government help.

Unlike the Katrina crowd, Houstonians didn’t do a lot of whinning.

[Orange1998]

Did you see the sand added in front of San Luis. It unbelievable they can get away with compromising the seawall.

[thackney]

Yes, the 1900 storm was one of the few that built a city, not just tore one down.

Because of the storm, the Houston Ship Channel was built. The industry and resulting population grew from that.

[SunkenCiv]

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[Monkey Face]

There is a book called “Isaac’s Storm,” about the 1900 hurricane. I’ve read it two or three times, and it always shakes me up.

The worst of it was that they were so isolated for so long in their devastation.

[Crystal Cove]

Wow, I hadn’t realized Ike caused destruction on the level of Katrina. I have a co-worker in Houston and he never even mentioned thousands of homes destroyed and the resulting homeless people, or massive flooding, or any of that.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

I'm way over on the southwest side of Houston and there was damage (not devastation though) even as far out as where I live. We lost power for a short while, but 10 miles from me a friend was without power for over 2 weeks.

I drive by homes everyday that have blue tarps on top covering roof damage and see fences that were destroyed. The storm was massive - we were lucky and had minimal damage - Galveston was hit head on and smaller communities were still finding bodies weeks after the storm. Cattle, animals, people - I really thought there would be more fatalities than there were.