Customer Reviews

Great Galveston Disaster, The

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Galveston Island, Texas - A massive hurricane strikes the Island on a Saturday afternoon in September 1900. Paul Lester, along with an introduction by Richard Spillane, Editor "Galveston Tribune" and Associated Press Correspondent who survived the storm in Galveston, give eyewitness accounts of the death and destruction that surround this natural disaster. Written in 1900, immediately after the storm passes, and with the sensational overtones so prevalent of newspapers then, this book engrosses the reader and enables one to experience along with victims, their overpowering sufferance. Many lives were lost, many families torn apart, many children left orphaned. Paul Lester gives the thrilling accounts of heroism, and what life was really like immediately following such a life-altering event. It is amazing to read these stories, which take the reader back in time, when the Gulf Coast of Texas was a growing and thriving area of the South. The survivors must overcome their grief of losing loves ones, their shock of seeing such massive amounts of dead bodies everywhere, to clean up the remnants of a city that was completely destroyed in one night. Each chapter gives eyewitness accounts by many different Galvestonians, visitors and tourist that were there on that fateful Saturday. The stories by outsiders and various government agencies that had to overcome washed out wagon bridges, and railroad bridges to bring the island city much needed food, water, medical supplies, disinfectants and manpower. The tales of having thousands of bodies that were dumped at sea only to wash back up on the beaches the next day. The loss of everything these people owned and their survival is indeed thrilling and fascinating. The spirited stories and accounts of the destruction that tore through the state of Texas as told back in 1900 makes one shudder. There are old pictures that show the actual unbelievable devastation and ruin of this thriving island city. The gross and unimaginable stench of death, visions of total desolation and ruin are all described in this captivating book.

The writing is so simplistic, the characters are so cartoonish and there are so many inaccuracies that reading this book becomes a dissapointment. It almost feel like it had been written by 15 year old!!! The real story of the Galveston hurricane is so rich and powerful that it makes one wonder how come this author couldn't come up with something better than this.

This book appears to be little more than a dressed up copy (republication) of the original book of the same name published in 1900 by Globe Bible Publishing Co. in Philadelphi, PA. I happen to be lucky enough to actually own one of the originals. The original is cloth bound book with the same photo as on the paperback embossed on the front and is 511 pages and has 62 photos & drawings. I have mostly just read the intro and looked at the photos. The intro is by Richard Spillane (editor of the Galveston Tribune) who escaped the island to tell the world of the disaster and plea for help. I lived in the Clear Lake area for 26 years and I recognize a lot of the area he describes. I tried reading the book several times but it is rather fragile and has a lot of melodrama.

One thing the book really shows is the different perspective of that time (especially in regard to race) and the shear carnage and damage of the storm. The photos are amazing.

The similarities between the hurricane's which struck Galveston, and New Orleans is, well, almost eerie. In reading the newspaper headlines in this book, if you did not know which storm they were writing about, it would be hard to tell the difference between the two. I suppose the old saying, the more things change, the more they stay the same, at least in this particular instance, is true. I read Jacob's Storm, but this book is told in first person narative which makes the similarities all the more strange. Although Katrina was a horrible storm, the hurricane which struck Galveston in 1900, and the devestation, and deaths it caused, makes Katrina look puny by comparison. No one knows what category storm hit Galveston simply because they didn't grade storms at that time, but all guesses I have read said it was most certainly a cat 5.

This is a great book for those who wish to make comparisons between Katrina, and the unnamed storm which struck Galveston.