There was still no news from Galveston on Aug. 18, 1915 two full days after a hurricane packing 125 mile-per-hour winds slammed into the island.

Texans on the mainland, including 7,000 refugees from the stricken city, could only worry and wonder whether the new seawall had saved Galveston from a repeat of the calamity of 1900.

Two hurricanes in the summer of 1886, especially the August storm that finished off Indianola, got some Galvestonians to thinking again about building a barrier on the beach.  But they were, as usual, badly outnumbered by neighbors, who took it as an article of faith that the Oleander City was immune to nature’s wrath. Continue reading →