Fearsome storm whips up history
A town that for so long has commemorated its destruction — the local "Great Storm" Theater regularly plays 30 minutes of images, writings and sounds of the 1900 hurricane, its aftermath and rebuilding — was preparing to relive it.
"The images of the devastation of 1900 are always with us. It's engraved in our collective consciousness even more than most communities," said Marsh Davis, executive director of the Galveston Historical Foundation.
"Time has caught up with us, and we are facing the first evacuation here in 20 years."
Recent images of Hurricane Katrina's ruin have been adequate warning for this island's residents, who have grown up with daily reminders of the 1900 hurricane.
Ten miles of sea wall separate residents from the Gulf, and plaques mark homes that survived the storm more than a century ago, more than 2,000 of which were elevated in the 1900s to protect them from future storms.
The local museum features an ongoing storm exhibit, and pictures on the walls of restaurants depict the storm's destruction.
A large, fading granite stone in a cemetery memorializes those who perished in 1900. For the 100th anniversary of that storm, a sculpture was added to the sea wall — of a man holding his wife and child and raising one arm to the sky.
"It's an event that people talk about," Davis said. "It was the defining moment for this community."