THEN AND NOW

ES
HURRIC AN
Illustration, previous page: Sailors have long battled hurricanes.
This 1869 illustration shows a ship in a severe storm. Ouragan is
the French word for hurricane.
 ALSO BY
DEBORAH HOPKINSON

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HURRICANES THEN AND NOW

BY
DEBORAH HOPKINSON

NEW YORK
 Copyright © 2022 by Deborah Hopkinson

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available

ISBN 978-1-338-36017-2

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 22 23 24 25 26

Printed in the U.S.A. 113

First edition, January 2022

Book design by Abby Dening

Illustration, previous page: Galveston’s awful calamity.

This 1900 illustration depicts the horror of the hurricane
that devastated Galveston, Texas, on September 8, 1900.
For Bonnie and Jamie in Texas
(and all the dogs)
Harry Maxson struggled through flooded streets in Galveston on
September 8, 1900, much like this scene in Providence,
Rhode Island, during a 1938 hurricane.
 PROLOGUE
Harry Runs for Home

Galveston, Texas

Saturday, September 8, 1900

Four o’clock in the afternoon

T
he storm had burst by the time Harry Maxson
started for home. Rain fell in torrents, slashing
his skin. Gusts
of wind beat against his
face. He had twenty-two
blocks to go.
Harry was just four-
teen, but he was big for
his age and strong. His
father worked for the
Harry Maxson
railroad and had helped

❯ xi ❮
 The Deadliest Hurricanes Then and Now

Harry land his first part-time job, hauling freight at the

railroad yard for sixteen cents an hour. On Saturday,
even as the storm grew worse, Harry and the grown men
kept working until finally the boss said they could go.
By then, the water was already so deep that in some
places Harry had to wade. But when he reached a street
with only two inches of water, he began to run.
“I saw a roof being lifted off of a house. Believe
me I sprinted as fast as I could as some shingles came
toward me,” said Harry. “I threw up my hand to guard
my head and a nail in one of the shingles struck me
and cut the back of my hand. At that minute—the
wind, the water—dodging the shingles, I finally slipped
and fell.”
Harry’s face hit the water and he licked his lips.
Wait! What was this? He could taste salt. All this water?
It wasn’t from the torrential rain. No, this was the Gulf
of Mexico itself surging over the city streets.
Harry struggled to his feet. The wind kept blow-
ing. The water kept rising. His house was on M Street,

❯ xii ❮
 Harry Runs for Home

close to the beach on the Gulf side. By the time he

arrived around five o’clock, water in the yard was nearly
a foot deep.
Saturday afternoon was just the beginning. The
deadliest hurricane in American history had Galveston
in its grip.
Not a soul was ready.

❯ xiii ❮
 BEFORE YOU GO ON

T
his book tells the story of a terrible disaster,
through the words of survivors. Their accounts
help us understand what it was like to experi-
ence the Great Galveston hurricane. And that’s possible
because ordinary people took the time to share their
stories in letters, oral histories, interviews, and journals.
Telling our stories is so important—even more than
you might imagine. I wanted the accounts here to reflect
various points of view and life experiences from both
white and Black survivors. Yet, as I began my research, I
mostly found accounts from white people. The voices of
African Americans were missing. Luckily, I discovered a
book entitled Island of Color: Where Juneteenth Started
by Izola Collins (1929–2017). A Galveston teacher
for many years, Ms. Collins was part of a family who

❯ xv ❮
 The Deadliest Hurricanes Then and Now

had lived in Galveston for five generations. She was

inspired to publish a history of African Americans in
her city by seeing her grandfather Ralph Albert Scull
(1860–1949) write in his own journal.
“I remember passing his bedroom late evenings,
and seeing Papa (as we girls called him, since this is
what my mother called her father) sitting at his little
desk, writing in the green composition tablet,” she
recalled. He spent years recording his observations and
experiences as an educator and pastor in the African
American community.
Thanks to Ralph Albert Scull and Izola Collins, we
can read the story of Annie Smizer McCullough, Izola’s
great-aunt, who was in her nineties when she shared her
memories of the storm. We have insights and details
that would otherwise be lost to historians, writers, and
readers like you and me.
In addition to personal stories about the Galveston
hurricane itself, throughout this book you’ll find spe-
cial sections with facts about weather science and

❯ xvi ❮
 Before You Go On

hurricanes. And in the back, along with other resources,

I’ve included instructions for doing an oral history
interview with a relative or friend. I hope you’ll be a
history detective too!
We’re all part of history. Your story matters. I hope
you will tell it.

—Deborah Hopkinson

❯ xvii ❮
This is a NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
weather satellite image of Hurricane Maria over Puerto Rico on
September 20, 2017. In 1900, weather forecasters could look up,
but not down, on storms and clouds.
Part One
BEFORE

Galveston, Texas
Early September 1900
 CHAPTER 1
Path of Confusion

“The hurricane which visited Galveston

Island on Saturday, September 9, 1900,

was no doubt one of the most important

meteorological events in the world’s history.”

—ISAAC M. CLINE,
GALVESTON
WEATHER BUREAU

J
ust twenty-four hours before Harry struggled
home, the sun shone on Galveston, Texas. There
were few signs a monster storm was on the way.
Katherine Vedder, almost six, lived in the city
with her parents and her older brother and sister. Her
father had heard rumors about bad weather approach-
ing. Yet when Katherine looked out the window at five
o’clock on Friday, she saw no sign of trouble. “It was a

❯ 3 ❮
 The Deadliest Hurricanes Then and Now

perfect late summer afternoon, the day clear blue and

cloudless.”
Isaac Monroe Cline, Galveston’s chief weather
observer, was also scanning the sky about that time.
In fact, he’d been staring at the waves and the skies
all week. He was hoping to make sense of the pattern,
the way you look at pieces in a jigsaw puzzle and try to
figure out where they fit.
But so far, the picture wasn’t clear.
Isaac Cline was thirty-nine. He and his wife, Cora,
had three children, with a new baby on the way. Isaac
was a rising star in meteorology, the study of the
atmosphere and weather. Since being appointed head
of the Galveston weather station seven years earlier,
he’d become a valued member of the community. Isaac
had a lot in common with his adopted city. Both were
ambitious and optimistic.
Today, just as in 1900, the city of Galveston sits on
Galveston Island, a long finger of land, twenty-seven
miles long and no more than three miles wide, that

❯ 4 ❮
 Path of Confusion

lies just off the coast of Texas. The brackish waters of

Galveston Bay, an estuary, are to the north, and the
Gulf of Mexico is to the south. Houston is about fifty
miles inland; a railroad trestle across the bay was com-
pleted in 1860. (Today, a highway bridge connects
Galveston with the Texas mainland.)
Founded in the 1800s, Galveston was a busy
entry point for immigrants from Germany, Scotland,
and Eastern Europe. Some called it the Ellis Island
or New York City of the West. With its popula-
tion of European immigrants, Latinos, and African
Americans, Galveston was a multicultual port city. The
city boasted a bustling waterfront. Trains brought cot-
ton, wheat, and corn from inland farms to be shipped
around the globe.
Grand mansions lined Broadway, Galveston’s
main thoroughfare. The city boasted a host of activi-
ties for residents and visitors alike. People flocked to
restaurants, concert halls, and hotels, including the
beautiful five-story brick Tremont Hotel. Surrounded

❯ 5 ❮
 The Deadliest Hurricanes Then and Now

by sparkling water and festooned with white oyster

shells, Galveston was a glittering symbol of success,
poised for the new century ahead.
Galveston’s leaders had established a streetcar sys-
tem and electricity services. They’d also built new
houses. Isaac and Cora Cline lived in one of them, at
2511 Avenue Q, just three blocks north of the Gulf.
Not everyone lived in a new or sturdy home. As the
population grew during the late 1800s, small structures
sprang up on both the front streets and back alleys of
the city. Some of these “alley houses” became rental
housing for itinerant laborers who came to Galveston
for short periods of time to work. Many became home
to African American families and were built after the
Civil War by Black carpenters, including Horace Scull,
Ralph Albert Scull’s father.
Hoping for new opportunities, Horace Scull had
brought his family to Galveston in 1865, when Ralph
was just five. In June of that year, a momentous event
took place.

❯ 6 ❮
 Path of Confusion

Major General Gordon Granger of the Union

Army arrived in Galveston bringing official word
to Texas that the Civil War was over and formerly
enslaved people were free. President Abraham Lincoln’s
1863 Emancipation Proclamation (which had freed any
enslaved persons in Confederate states) had never been
enforced in Texas.
Today, Juneteenth is celebrated on June 19 to
commemorate emancipation. Juneteenth has been an
official state holiday in Texas since 1980. In 2016, at
the age of eighty-nine, activist Opal Lee, known as
“Grandmother of Juneteenth,” first walked from her
home in Texas to Washington, DC, in an effort to get
Juneteenth recognized as a national holiday. And on
June 17, 2021, the ninety-four-year old Lee was able to
celebrate. On that day, President Joe Biden signed leg-
islation making Juneteenth a federal holiday.
In the decades after the Civil War ended in 1865,
formerly enslaved people faced prejudice and huge
obstacles when trying to get an education, a good job,

❯ 7 ❮
 The Deadliest Hurricanes Then and Now

or to own a home. Horace Scull worked building alley

houses on leased ground, meaning the landowner usu-
ally rented out the house. In 1867, Horace built a house
for his own family too. But he was forced to move the
house twice because the landowner either changed his
mind or refused to sell the land under it to Horace
because he was Black.
The small, simply built structures available to Black
families weren’t as big or sturdy as the houses many
white families were able to afford. These homes would
not be able to withstand tremendously strong floods
and winds like those of America’s deadliest hurricane.
Around 1900, African Americans made up about one-
fifth of the city’s population of nearly 38,000. In addition
to working in construction, some African Americans
had jobs on the docks, thanks to Norris Wright Cuney,
one of the most important Black leaders of his time.
He served on the Galveston city council and helped
create more job opportunities for African American
workers on the waterfront. In 1889, he was appointed

❯ 8 ❮
 Path of Confusion

the United States Collector of Customs, making him

the highest-ranking appointed Black federal official
in the country.
Other African Americans began their own small busi-
nesses. Robert “Bob” McGuire ran a busy taxi service with
a horse and buggy. He earned enough money to buy land
near the shore, and built a bathhouse there that Black resi-
dents could use. He also served as a police officer.
The children of these early Black entrepreneurs went
on to make a mark in their community. Horace Scull’s
son, Ralph, became a teacher. In the same way, Jessie
McGuire Dent, daughter of Bob and Alberta McGuire,
attended Howard University and then returned to
Galveston to teach.
In 1943, while teaching in the Galveston schools,
Jessie realized that Black teachers were paid less than
whites. She fought and won a case in federal court to
require equal pay for African American public school
teachers. To honor this family’s contributions to
Galveston, educator and author Izola Collins became

❯ 9 ❮
 The Deadliest Hurricanes Then and Now

the driving force in establishing the McGuire-Dent

Recreation Center in Galveston.
Before 1900, other Black-owned shops and busi-
nesses grew up in the area around Bob McGuire’s
bathhouse between Twenty-Seventh and Twenty-Ninth
Streets. In segregated Galveston, Black families often
didn’t feel welcome elsewhere. Izola Collins wrote,
“White owners of businesses on the sand did not want
their patrons to be turned off by the presence of former
slaves in the water with them. Such owners, and some-
times even police, told them to move on, that they were
not allowed to swim in those areas.”
Despite facing many obstacles, Galveston’s African
American community grew to include thriving churches
as well as popular restaurants and clubs. Galveston’s
Central High was the first African American high
school in Texas, founded in 1885. However, there were
separate sections for Black residents in theaters, on the
beaches, and on the trolleys. Galveston was still a seg-
regated city.

❯ 10 ❮
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