7. The 1915 Galveston Hurricane
Following the hurricane which struck at Galveston in 1900, the city erected a seawall to limit the storm surge which flooded the city. In 1915 a hurricane struck at Galveston again, and the seawall held back the storm surge as it was designed to do, but when the high waters which were held back on the beaches receded, it took most of the beaches away. Galveston was left with a sandbar well offshore, and though attempts to recreate the beaches were made over time, they were never fully rebuilt. The hurricane came ashore at Galveston as a category 4 storm, and its high winds and heavy rains caused substantial damage, but thanks to the seawall there was no catastrophic flooding in the city.
Near the town’s 39th street, a large four mast ship was swept over the seawall, which it caught with its anchors, only to be broken apart by the storm’s battering it against the top of the wall. There was flooding in the city, caused by the heavy rains which overwhelmed the storm drains. After leaving Galveston behind it the storm traveled across the nation via the Ohio Valley, causing flash flooding and mudslides before it finally fell apart near the end of August. Between 275 and 400 deaths were attributed to the storm and its aftermath, but of those only 11 were in the city of Galveston itself, a low number which was the result of the seawall and its prevention of the storm surge crashing through the city.