The Great Galveston Disaster: Containing a Full and Thrilling Account of the Most Appalling Calamity of Modern Times

Rating:
Summary: Reliving The Great Galveston Disaster
Review: 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.