 September 8, 1900, Galveston was assaulted by a storm so fierce that an entire city was all but flattened and destroyed; the death toll has been estimated between 6,000-12,000 men, women and children. It was a storm that changed the course of Texas history.
It had been a grand ole summer on Galveston, Island. The new century had brought promise and prosperity to the bustling Texas port, the new gem of the Gulf Coast. Economists were predicting the Galveston port could possibly even rival New York City as a primary shipping center and port of entry for immigrant settlers who continued to flock to the New World in great numbers. And like New York City, tirn-of-the-century Galveston sported a refined and modern local culture full of art, grand architecture and high society.
Galveston had become the nation's largest cotton port and provided the world with a steady export of U.S. grains and other agriculture products. And with its success as an international port had come the money - lots of money. It was called a "city of millionaires" with more wealth per capita perhaps than any city in the world. Citizens could catch a trolley and take in the Opera, stroll along the streets of a well-defined art district. There were public parks, sidewalk cafes and theaters for the performing arts. Life, in general, was good in Galveston. The future was bright.
Like the nation-at-large, Galveston was experiencing a boom from industrial development. The U.S. had boldly stepped into the new century with a solid plan for prosperity. After the Spanish-American war, the U.S. had become a notable world power. Technology was changing the face of society.
In 1900, major tropical storms weren't given names as they are today. There was no Saffir-Simpson scale, no satellite imaging or Doppler radar to gauge the size and magnitude of a storm system. While the U.S. Weather Bureau was in its infant stages of development, the most reliable report of a storm's strength still came from seagoing vessels that interacted with these systems per chance - certainly not by choice.
Yet, perhaps clouded by the promise of a technology boom that would forever change the face of the world, there were some that believed the growing scientific community had a good handle on things -- like the weather. In fact, a few believed the world was on the verge of being able to control the elements; at least to accurately predict when and where weather would occur, offering an advantage to the public not previously known before.
One such individual was Isaac Cline, the new chief weatherman for Galveston Island. Armed with the latest gadgets for predicting weather and connected to other weather reporting stations via the telegraph, Cline was a confident scientist that was riding high on the assumption that the new technology provided all the tools needed for accurately predicting weather developments.
Yet in spite of ship-to-shore reports that the approaching September storm was a major hurricane, in spite of alleged pleas from his brother, also a scientist, Cline apparently refused to believe a major storm was approaching the Texas coastline. His own weather instruments had shown little change in barometric pressure; had offered no evidence that a major storm was about to assail the tiny, vulnerable barrier island just off the Texas coast.
The summer had been unusually hot and dry. The Gulf waters were exceptionally warm, near 90-degrees. A plume of warm air erupted off the coast of Africa and traveled across open waters of the Atlantic and into the Caribbean, gaining energy as the water became warmer and warmer with each mile.
 By the time the storm roared past Florida and into the Gulf of Mexico it had built up a full head of steam. It was moving fast, and a wall of water, pushed by extremely high winds, was building to the front of the system. On September 8, 1900, in the early evening hours, the leading wave of the storm arrived in Galveston. The storm surge rushed onto shore, flattening almost every structure in the modern city of Galveston, killing as many as 12,000 people (according to some reports) as it worked its way on shore, a figure more than twice that of the combined death tolls of the Johnstown Flood and the Great San Francisco Earthquake.
There had been few evacuations. There had been little warning. The disaster still ranks as the worst in U.S. history.
History has its lessons. But people have their ways. At the beginning of the 21st century, technology and accurate weather forecasting has become as much an art as a science. With the power of telecommunications there's hardly a living soul in America that doesn't know when a serious storm approaches. Indeed, most of us are aware of the approach of these major storms long before it they make landfall.
Yet, as evidenced recently in the New Orleans, even the best of predictions don't always end with people making the best decisions. In Galveston, at the turn of last century, one man is credited by some with costing thousands unsuspecting lives. But even if Isaac Cline had warned the people of Galveston to get out early; to leave behind their golden towers and their fancy museums, the question remains: "Would they have left anyway?"
As for the Galveston of 1900, we may never know the answer. But the question is valid for modern times. Did the people of New Orleans and Gulfport or Biloxi flee in the face of the Hurricane Katrina - in spite of warnings and mandatory evacuation orders?
Certainly many did, and obviously many did not. If there is but one lesson we can learn from history is that weather, especially tropical systems, are very unpredictable. The best tracked storms can swerve at the last moment. Hurricanes can intensify just before hitting the coast. A few storms go unnoticed until it is too late
In a hurricane, it seems, there is no safe place to hide.
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