Book Review: A Weekend in September by John Edward Weems

A Weekend in September by John Edward Weems

On September 8, 1900, a hurricane hit Galveston Island. At the time, there was little advanced warning and the islanders were used to big storms coming through. Most houses were built above ground so the "overflows" from the Gulf of Mexico or from Galveston Bay would do minimal damage. The 1900 storm was considerably worse than any previous storm. It caused the greatest natural disaster in American history with approximately 6000 dead. The devastation was so great, a precise number is impossible. Large sections of the city were flattened or washed away.

Weems chronicles the weekend (the storm hit on a Saturday) with eyewitness accounts of various survivors and the more reliable of reports from local newspapers. Galveston was a large city at the time, the second largest in Texas. The summer season was just ending and the docks along the north side of the island had many merchant ships coming and going. The National Weather Service had indications of a large storm near Cuba days earlier but they predicted landfall in Louisiana. The rough surf on Saturday morning grew into an overflow that would cover the entire island by nightfall. The winds from the north blew water from Galveston Bay onto the north of the island as the storm surge started to cover the south of the island. The winds grew more ferocious during the day, strong enough to blow the anemometer off the roof of the local weather service. People fled to the most stable houses they could find and slowly moved upstairs as the day grew progressively worse. Many people were trapped. Some were blown out of their shelters, riding out the storm on detritus or in the branches of trees that still poked out above the water. Some were blown far inland; many were lost at sea. Hundreds of houses and businesses were completely destroyed. The shock of survivors on Sunday led into a long and desperate recovery that took months.

The story is harrowing and sobering. The ground-eye view from the survivors gives the narrative authenticity. Many survivors said that you can't imagine what it was truly like. They lived through a horrible afternoon and night where they did not expect to survive. This is a book that's hard to put down.

Highly recommended.