Best of the History Guy: Wild Weather

foreign severe weather has had enormous impacts on human history and we've talked about some of that in episodes of the history guy from winter storms that shut down entire regions to typhoons that it did as much damage to a Navy Fleet as a battle would have done flash floods hurricanes tornadoes even heavy rain over a European Battlefield is all served to remind us that human history is not always within the control of humankind but sometimes a weather phenomena is simply so strange such a bizarre example of the complexity of nature that it deserves to be remembered like that time in Dubuque Iowa 139 years ago today the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration severe storms laboratory describes hail as a form of precipitation consisting of solid ice that forms inside thunderstorm updrafts Hill can damage aircraft homes and cars and can be deadly to livestock and people hailstones are formed when raindrops are carried upward by thunderstorm updrafts into extremely cold areas of the atmosphere and trees hailstones then grow by colliding with liquid water drops that freeze onto the hailstone's surface as the formation of hail requires updrafts a characteristic of thunderstorms hail literally falling ice somewhat counter-intuitively most often occurs in summer Spectrum news 1 of Charlotte North Carolina notes hail season is generally during the warmer months when thunderstorms developed thunderstorms feed off of warm unstable air that is often present during spring and summer contrite what you might think hail doesn't form as the ice is lofted to the very top of a storm as Noah notes at very high altitudes the air is cold enough that all liquid water will have frozen into ice and hailstones need liquid water to grow to an appreciable size the hail grows as much from being blown side to side as up and down the severe storms laboratory website continues the winds inside the thunderstorm aren't simply up and down horizontal winds exist from either a rotating updraft like in a supercell thunderstorms or from the surrounding environment's horizontal winds writing in the November 2019 edition of the journal monthly weather review Thomas pugic of the European severe storms laboratory observed that hail annually causes billions of dollars in damage worldwide to crops and property combined damage from Individual hail storms can exceed a billion dollars as shown by individual cases from Europe the United States and Australia newest severe storms database lists over 4 600 major hail storms occurring in the United States in 2020 causing an estimated 8 to 14 billion dollars in damage while hail storms are fairly common around many places of the world there are a few rare examples where hail storms form that are of exceptional size the size of the hail is a factor of the strength of the updraft of the storm meteorologist Jeff habe elucidated on the website theweatherprediction.com hail forms in the updraft region of a thunderstorm a hail producing thunderstorm will need to have a strong updraft extremely large hail requires an extreme updraft the website AccuWeather further articulates a strong updraft allows hailstones to make several Loops inside a thunderstorm Cloud causing them to grow in diameter as they collect layer upon layer of ice with each go-round the stronger the updraft the larger the hailstones are possible the size of the stones is not necessarily however the result of multiple Loops inside the storm but according to an August 1983 edition of the Journal of the atmospheric sciences the critical flow factor is a broad region of moderate updraft allowing hailstones remain balanced in the prime growth regions that is storms with a moderate updraft keep the stones in areas with high concentrations of humidity and supercooled water droplets longer well even small hail can cause damage especially when blown by wind hailstones can grow to be quite large depending upon the strength of the wind carrying the hailstones still at some point gravity wins as Noah concludes hail Falls when it becomes heavy enough to overcome the strength of the thunderstorm updraft and is pulled towards the Earth by gravity well smaller storms with updrafts of 30 miles per hour might produce hail heavier Stones require substantially stronger updrafts NOAA estimates for example that updrafts of around 103 miles per hour would be necessary to form a softball sized or four and a half inch diameter Hailstone updrafts of that speed generally require a type of thunderstorm called a supercell characterized by a type of deep persistent rotating updraft or Vortex called a mesocyclone according to NOAA a 2010 supercell over Vivian South Dakota produced the official world record for the largest Hailstone which was over 18 inches in circumference and weighed nearly two pounds well meteorologists measure hailstones in inches or centimeters reporting often describes hail in comparison to familiar objects WRCB TV Chattanooga describes the history of hail measurement the way it probably started a hundred years ago or more was when a lot more people lived in rural areas and they used familiar objects to compare the size of the hail that fell with their farms for example we had hail here as big as our hen eggs and while that form of measurement seems a bit loosey-goosey or I guess hinzy eggsy it's actually a simple and effective way to describe the size of hail and is surprisingly standardized with an official list published by the National Weather Service for example hail with a diameter of one quarter inches pea sized while hail with a diameter of four inches is softball size the scale however gives some room for description he'll have a diameter of an inch and a half for example can be described as either Walnut or ping pong sized really complex factors affecting the speed at which hail Falls according to NOAA Recent research shows that natural hailstones fall more slowly than solid ice spheres still hell can reach significant speeds along the stones to do significant damage the NOAA website continues there is much uncertainty in estimates due to the variability in the hailstone's shape degree of melting Fall Orientation and the environmental conditions however it is possible for very large hailstones to fall at over 100 miles per hour in the shifting winds there seems to be a point where the size of the hail exceeds the strength of the updraft the hail doesn't fall randomly rather Noah says when viewed from the air it is evident that hail Falls in paths known as Hill swaths these occur as storms move while the hail is falling out they can range in size from a few acres to an area of 10 miles wide and 100 miles long and all that means that if the conditions are right a swath of large hail can strike an area and do significant damage and on June 16th 1882 such a swath struck the city of Dubuque Iowa Dubuque lies at the junction of Iowa Illinois and Wisconsin an area known as the tri-state area named after a French Canadian Julian Dubuque who first settled in the area in the 1780s the city was incorporated in 1833 five years before the land was incorporated into the Iowa territory dubuque's location on the Mississippi River made at the center of many Industries notably Timber and millworking according to the United States census in 1880 the population was 22 254 making it the 81st largest city in the United States just behind another Iowa City Des Moines the Midwest had been struck by storms in June of 1882 but one of those swaths of hail that struck Dubuque was unique the monthly weather review of the American Meteorological Society read Dubuque Iowa June 16th for 13 minutes commencing at 264 PM the largest and most destructive hailstones fell that were ever seen at this place the Sioux City Journal of Sioux City Iowa called the hail the most terrific hail storm ever known in the Northwest saying hailstones measuring 12 to 15 inches in circumference felt in profusion until the ground was covered with icy Boulders and upon that no one but those who saw the stones falling will believe this account of their size if the accounts are to be believed the Stone's falling on Dubuque that day approach the size of the record largest hail in history the weather review described the largest Stones weighing one pound and 12 ounces there were so many hailstones that the review says Washington Park was literally covered with hailstones as large as lemons and large basketballs could be gathered in a few minutes the Sioux City Journal said the stones weighed six ounces to two pounds some when melted making a quart of water the journal described the devastation the oldest inhabitants declared they never saw anything like it before great Stones fully as large as a coconut Came Crashing from the clouds striking the pavement and breaking into a half dozen pieces others crashing Through the Windows of street cars demolishing Street lamps and knocking men women and horses insensible the monthly weather review noted a number of persons were severely cut and bruised by the falling hailstones the Sioux City Journal told the story of Mrs Sergeant who was struck on the head by a large Stone and knocked senseless in a terrible gash cut in her scalp rending her condition critical a large Stone crashed through the stiff half of Mr Graham the general reported felling him to the ground the damage was significant according to the weather review the damage inflicted is estimated at five thousand dollars when florist lost 3 387 panes of glass hundreds of Windows of South and West exposure were broken including 20 Windows of heavy french plate glass but the storm with a profusion of hailstones of extraordinary size included a bizarre detail the weekly weather report included the testimony of the foreman of the Dubuque novelty Ironworks making the astounding claim in two large hailstones melted by him were found small living frogs if these exceptionally large hailstones are rare frog hail is possibly unique while rare frogs are a part of recognized weather phenomenon the website of the Library of Congress explains there have been reports of reigning frogs and Fish dating back to ancient civilization of course it doesn't rain frogs or fish in the sense that it rains water no one has ever seen frogs or fish vaporize into the air before rainfall however strong winds such as those in a tornado or hurricane are powerful enough to lift animals people trees and houses it is possible that they could suck up a school of fish or frogs and Rain them elsewhere the library speculates that tornadic waterspouts tornadoes that form over land and then cross water are to blame the website continues Professor Ernest Agee from Purdue University says I've seen Small Ponds literally empty to their water by a passing tornado so it wouldn't be unreasonable for frogs or other living things to rain from the skies most scientists agree that salt Stones fish or frogs can be pulled up into water spots swirling updrafts and deposited once the water spout hits land and loses its energy the website how stuff works reports that so-called frog rain is uncommon but a recognized thing you might hear a report of raining frogs or other unexpected objects some not even organic at least once a decade or so amphibious rain seems to be picking up in frequency in the last 20 years newspapers have found more opportunities than ever to write about frogs falling from the sky for unknown reasons Britain appears to be especially susceptible in recent years the result is usually bad for the frogs How Stuff work continues it's unlikely they survive the journey what with the speeding low pressure Vortex and the impact once the vortex dissolves usually the frogs die although it's unclear when exactly that happens during the trip or as a result of the Fall but occasionally the physics of the storm in the fall are not fatal to the unfortunate amphibians how stuff works and it's an incident of frog rain in Serbia in 2005 where people walked outside after the storm to see their streets blanketed in frogs trying to hop their way back to water but how did the frogs in Dubuque end up being encased in ice and how did they survive it the bottom line is that frogs are not very heavy the same supercell that created the Dubuque hail included water spouts which apparently grabbed up small frogs as well as grass and sticks that were also found Incorporated in the hail the debris was then caught in the updraft and some including a few frogs became Incorporated in the larger stones how did they survive according to the website Live Science many species of frogs were able to survive being frozen several species of frogs including the tiny wood frog full-grown specimens are just around two inches or adapted to being Frozen as a way to survive the winter during the process life science reports the Frog's heart slows and eventually stops all other organs stop functioning the frog doesn't use oxygen and actually appears to be dead only to wake up with the spring thaw in Dubuque in 1882 the rare phenomenon of Prague rain combined with the rare phenomenon of giant hail and the strange ability of frogs to survive being frozen creating what appears to have been the only reported meteorological example of frog hail in a famous line from Shakespeare's play The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark the title character says there are more things on Heaven and Earth Horatio than I dreamed of in your philosophy Shakespeare's point is that sometimes people have to believe evidence in front of them in the case of the play a ghost that don't fit in with someone's preconceived notions of how things work and in some ways it is harder to believe in frog hail than in Hamlet's father's ghost but as we historians are fond of saying sometimes history Than Fiction thank you 75 percent of the world's tornadoes occur in the United States but the most damaging kind of tornadoes are really rather rare on average they'll only be about seven tornadoes a year in the United States that have the potential to do devastating damage yet the night of April 3rd and 4th 1974 the United States saw 30 such tornadoes in just an 18-hour period the 1974 Super outbreak is history that deserves to be remembered on April 3rd 1974 a massive cold dry air dropped down from Canada moving towards the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys at the same time a massive warm wet air was coming up from the Gulf of Mexico there were what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration called sharp temperature contrast between the two fronts and above the two fronts was a particularly intense jet stream moving at some forty thousand feet the National Weather Service was differently organized in 1974. key Technologies such as Doppler radar were not yet developed detection systems were not just more rudimentary but also not ubiquitous and many weather stations had no form of radar at all systems for emergency warning and emergency response were also inconsistent across jurisdictions many towns did not have warning sirens the National Weather Service recognized the storm's potential but given the technology of the time they did not fully understand either the level of risk nor were the severe storms would erupt while warnings were issued they did not fully impart the danger of the approaching storms and in many cases missed the areas that would be most affected in fact what was developing was in many ways perfect conditions were tornadoes the warm air Rose quickly pushed not only by the temperature difference between the two fronts but the effects of Rapid local cooling caused by rainstorms and evaporation along with daytime surface heating as the warm air rushed upward it began to spiral and then was pushed Along by the powerful jet stream last April in the newspaper the Indiana news and Tribune Dr David call of Ball State University likened the conditions for the 1974 Super outbreak too turning up perfect sevens on a slot machine everything has to align perfectly if the jet stream had been slower if the air had been just a little bit cooler or a little bit drier if there'd been more cloud cover than the storm would not have been as devastating but all of that was very difficult to see with the weather prediction technology that we had in 1974 and the nation really had no idea what was coming the first tornado reported to touchdown was around 1 pm local time in Gilmer County in North Central Georgia destroying several homes in 1974 scientists did not have a common language to describe tornadoes ten Fujita a severe storms researcher at the University of Chicago had created the Fujita Scale in 1971 but it had not yet been widely adopted while it included estimated wind speeds the fajitas scale was based on the damage the tornado does to human structures and vegetation the tornado in Gilmer County which cut a nearly 16 mile path to Fannin County was estimated to be an F2 on the scale that ranged from F0 to F5 if F2 sounds small realize as meteorologists are fond of saying there are no small tornadoes and F2 is capable of causing significant damage tearing roofs off of frame houses and destroying mobile homes within an hour another tornado touched down near the town of Cleveland Tennessee the tornado and F3 enough to lift automobiles off the ground and throw them hit a subdivision with 20 trailer homes destroying 19 of them and claiming the first fatality of the outbreak two hours later another F3 struck the same area they struck dozens more homes and killing three more people emergency services in the town of only some twenty thousand were overwhelmed as dozens of injured people arrived at hospital emergency rooms 20 minutes after the first fatality in Tennessee another tornado struck rural Indiana 350 miles away the Paw tornado was a huge F5 that traveled more than 65 miles it was one of the largest of the tornadoes of the super outbreak but less well-known because the area it was so Rural and the tornado sometimes lacked a defined funnel despite doing F5 damage wiping away nearly two-thirds of the homes in the Tiny Town of DePauw and devastating the unincorporated community of Daisy Hill DePaul resident Thelma Matthews told the Louisville Curry Journal at the time I looked up and I saw a big two-story house coming over the hill the tornado claimed six lives in the devastation the capriciousness of the weather showed a couple in a car towing the trailer were caught on State Road 64. the tornado ripped off the trailer smashing it but left the couple in the car the roof was torn off in Elementary School South of the India and the town of Palmyra but none of the children huddled in hallways with the teachers were injured ten minutes later and roughly 180 miles east a tornado touched down near the town of Bellbrook population around 1200 in Southwestern Ohio as the tornado moved along it strengthened and formed what is called a multiple vortex tornado a tornado where one or more vortices rotate around the main vortex roaring along at 50 miles per hour the F5 storm headed for the town of Xenia population about 25 000. the storm could be seen on weather radar and the local radio station was able to provide a brief warning to the residents the tornado destroyed the Xenia High School school was out but there was a group practicing for a play they'd just taken shelter in the hallway when the tornado dropped a bus on the stage where they had just been practicing in all five schools the high school a junior high school two elementary schools and a Catholic School were destroyed by the tornado as well as nine churches and 180 businesses five people died when the tornado destroyed an A W Restaurant nearly half the City was destroyed as was an estimated three quarters of the campus of Central State University in nearby Wilberforce a witness told that Chillicothe Ohio Gazette I've been through World War II and this is worse than any of the bombings in Germany 32 people were killed more than 1100 injured part of what was striking about the tornado in zeni is that many of the injured had taken proper shelter due to the warnings but the storm was so severe the damage were destroyed even poured concrete still reinforced basement walls an hour later another F5 the only recorded tornado of F5 intensity in State history struck Brandenburg Kentucky nearly leveling the town of 1700 and killing 24. the same super spell spawned an F4 tornado that cut a 20-mile path near Louisville killing three as storms ravaged the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys more storms developed in the South around 6 30 in the evening another F5 tornado touched down near the small unincorporated town of Tanner in North Central Alabama the tornado was on the ground for nearly 90 minutes traveling 52 miles and killing 28 people as rescue crews arrived in Tanner even while the first tornado was still moving a second F5 Vortex formed less than a mile from where the first had started and it struck Tanner again yes two F5 tornadoes struck the same small town in the 30-minute period striking Justice rescue units were arriving the second tornado destroyed most of the few structures that had been left by the first the 500 yard wide tornado traveled 50 miles filled another 22 people the devastation continued into the morning of April 4th with the last confirmed tornado striking North Carolina around 8 A.M local time in all 148 tornadoes were confirmed in a period of just 18 hours hitting 13 states in the Canadian province of Ontario it was the first tornado outbreak in recorded history to produce more than 100 confirmed tornadoes in a 24-hour period the path of Destruction was almost beyond belief at one point 15 tornadoes were on the ground at the same time the tornadoes of the super outbreak devastated nearly 900 square miles altogether and had a combined path of more than 2 600 miles 315 people died as a result of the storms including 77 in Alabama 71 in Kentucky 47 in Indiana and 45 in Tennessee more than 5 400 people were injured thousands of structures were destroyed in some cases whole towns were destroyed damage in the United States alone was estimated at more than 3.3 billion dollars in today's dollars the super outbreak also dramatically changed how tornadoes and severe storms were tracked understood improved tools for Storm Prediction and warning and transformed the way the United States dealt with natural disasters President Nixon at the time embroiled in the Watergate scandal visited Xenia a few days after the tornado hit as President and Vice President Nixon had visited many disaster areas following hurricanes and even earthquakes ozenia he said I would say in terms of Destruction just total devastation this is the worst I have seen the president declared Xenia a disaster area although the federal Disaster Relief act which formalized the process for presidential disaster declarations helping to coordinate federal relief efforts and authorizing additional funds had been introduced in 1973 it had not yet passed Congress according to Nixon the 1974 Super outbreak accelerated passage of the ACT through Congress in 1974. 10 Vegeta himself surveyed the damage using it to refine his scale and drawing the first ever map of a tornado super outbreak mapping and classifying the outbreaks 148 tornadoes took three months and Vegeta put on nearly 13 000 flight miles visiting the locations the map and the devastation of the super outbreak demonstrated the value of a Common Language and scale for studying tornadoes and convinced the National Weather Service to adopt the Vegeta scale the scale depended upon analysis by meteorologists and Engineers surveying damage after a storm and later researchers applied the scale retroactively to virtually all recorded tornadoes in the U.S allowing a better understanding of how severe storms spawn tornadoes the U.S weather system in 1974 was determined to be inadequate at the time most facilities that were equipped with radar used the wsr 57 meaning the Weather Service radar 1957 model the system was difficult to use and while it could be used to pinpoint the position of a storm it did not indicate what direction it was headed nor could it show the motion of rain hail and snow relative to the Radar Site making it very difficult to predict tornadoes what's more the national coverage was entirely inadequate with just 66 Radars to cover the entire United States the 1950s model Radars depended upon vacuum tubes had a little overlap in the system when the station's radar was down which happened frequently the improved wsr-74 Weather Service radar model 1974 used transistors rather than vacuum tubes but otherwise use the same limited technology the devastating storms helped to spread the development of Doppler radar Cold War development intended to track incoming Soviet missiles the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were testing Doppler radar in a laboratory by 1977 and in 1991 Congress approved a nationwide system the switch to Doppler radar which allows the meteorologists to see what is going on inside the storm has dramatically improved the ability to predict tornadoes and provide valuable warning time finally prior to 1974 many towns had not prepared for severe weather disasters Xenia for example had no tornado siren warning system as a result of the 1974 Super outbreak hundreds of communities invested in tornado sirens and hundreds of schools instituted plans that included tornado drills something that was rare before the outbreak by studying the 1974 Super outbreak scientists learned quite a lot about tornadoes and how they behave in 2007 the National Weather Service retired the Vegeta scale and replaced it with the new enhanced Vegeta scale which better defines the damage to structures that are used to determine the intensity of the tornado and among other things the new EFS recognized new scientific understanding which realized that the damage to structures can occur at much lower wind speeds than at one time was previously assumed another Super outbreak in 2011 spawned a stunning 360 tornadoes and cost 324 fatalities most of those 238 of them were in Alabama however the 2011 Super outbreak developed over a longer period of time developing over three days and covered a smaller geographical area most in the United States Southeast the 2011 event also spawned far fewer intense tornadoes that is tornadoes of intensity ef-3 to EF5 well meteorologists argue they both qualify as super outbreaks the stunning 65 intense tornadoes in just an 18-hour period in 1974 is still exceptional in 2013 the weather tracking website U.S tornadoes overlaid the 1974 storm track over a 2013 map and determined that the same storm today would be passing over because of urban sprawl much more developed and populated areas which exponentially increases the potential for damage of course the nation is much better prepared today for example the National Weather Service in 1974 had just 52 stations today they have more than 120 and the old 1950s radar has been replaced by Doppler radar which has increased the lead warning time for a tornado from effectively none in 1974 to 12 to 14 minutes but even that much preparation is only so much help in the face of Nature's wrath after all it is only a matter of time before the slot machine once again turns up perfect sevens the Galveston hurricane of 1900 was the deadliest natural disaster in United States history and while many people are aware of that hurricane and the loss of life that was involved far fewer know of the amazing effort made by the citizens of Galveston and Engineers to literally raise the height of the island in order to prevent such loss of life in the future the great sea wall and the raising of the grade of Galveston Island is an engineering Marvel and history that deserves to be remembered a Barrier Island Galveston Texas sits approximately two miles off the coast and in the Gulf of Mexico because of its unique location the city has been subject to many storms throughout history that sweep through the western part of the Gulf its location made it the most prosperous city in Texas for a time in a bustling port for international trade Galveston even briefly served as the capital of the Republic of Texas for its interim government in 1836 Galveston or what it's residents simply called the island set the standard for technological development in Texas during its golden era it was home to among other things the first naval base in the state the first post office the first parochial school Ursuline Academy the first chapter of a masonic order the first Gaslight the first telephone electric lights the first Roman Catholic Hospital St Mary's Hospital the first orphanage and the First Medical College and nursing school in Texas but these promising developments suffered a serious blow on September 8 1900 when the hurricane also called the great storm struck Isaac Klein was chief meteorologist for Galveston with the U.S weather bureau which would eventually become the National Weather Service he was on the island establishing a new weather station and assisting in the organization of the Texas section of the weather bureau in 1891 Klein had written an editorial in the Galveston Daily News studying his professional opinion that the possibility of a hurricane seriously damaging the island was a crazy idea historians say his editorial was part of the reason that Galveston Town leaders decided against building a sea wall the great storm was recorded when it passed over Cuba but ships did not have wireless communication at the time and the weather bureau had little information about the storm as it passed over the Gulf of Mexico not knowing that the storm had steered towards Texas and had significantly strengthened Klein who is monitoring the rising winds in water broke weather bureau protocol by issuing a hurricane warning without getting authorization from Bureau headquarters in Washington D.C concerned at the size of the swells and suspecting that a major storm was approaching he hoisted the hurricane warning flags the day before the storm it is unclear how many lives his warning saved the punishing winds estimated to be some 140 miles per hour at landfall and Rising tide flooded the entire Island under 8 to 15 feet of water historians estimate that six to eight thousand people lost their lives on the island itself and thousands more on the mainland in the deadliest recorded storm in U.S history Survivor's first aid accounts are preserved by the Rosenberg Library and museum in Galveston Texas the stories include slaked tiles being ripped off roofs and turned into deadly projectiles by the wind entire homes were swept off their foundations and into the ocean or slammed into the neighboring houses a young girl described in a handwritten account waiting out the storm in the bathroom and the second story of her family's home the next day she remembered seeing a body left on the Flint lawn the nuns at the Saint Mary's orphans Asylum located on a beachfront fought bravely to save the children in their charge a Survivor said he saw the storm surges were eroding the sand dunes and so they were made of flower let us gathered the children into the girl's dormitory because it was newer and they believed safer than the boy's dormitory they all sang the French hymn Queen of the Waves in an effort to remain calm after the boy's dormitory completely washed away the nuns escorted the children to the second story of the girls dormitory and tied themselves and the children together with clothesline but when the foundation lifted from the ground and the roof collapsed upon them ten nuns and 90 orphans were killed instantly or swept out in the storm surge only three children survived members of the congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word still remember the deaths of the nuns and children each September 8th by singing Queen of the Waves beyond the catastrophic death toll which some historians estimated almost a fifth of the population at the time the city was in Ruins approximately half of the homes on the island had been destroyed property losses were estimated between 28 and 30 million dollars in 1900 representing more than a billion dollars in today's dollars the day after the storm one of the survivors said such a scene of desolation has met the eyes of the people of Galveston when day Dawn Sunday September 9th has rarely been witnessed on Earth beneath these masses of broken buildings in the streets in the yards in fence Corners in cisterns in the bay far out across the waters on the mainland Shores everywhere in fact were Corpses to bury the dead was a physical impossibility officials tried dumping bodies out to sea but many washed back so the city had to burn huge funeral pyres on the beaches Isaac Klein would regret his public comments about Galveston not needing a sea wall his wife who had been pregnant with their fourth child was among those who lost their lives in the disaster Klein said this being my first experience in a tropical Cyclone I did not foresee the magnitude of the damage it would do he relocated with his remaining family to New Orleans and spent the rest of his life perfecting the science of long-range forecasting to provide the storm warnings and save the lives he could not save in Galveston when President McKinley was alerted to the disaster he wrote to the people of Galveston the reports of the great Calamity which is befall in Galveston and other points on the coast of Texas excite my profound Sympathy for the sufferers and they will stir the hearts of the whole country I have directed the Secretary of War to supply rations intents upon your request despite his offer much of the cost to rebuild Galveston was born by its residents and Texas with charitable donations coming from other individuals or private organizations a group of prominent citizens banded together and declared martial law for the island in the days following the massive storm because some had been caught robbing from the dead or profiteering from their neighbor's misfortune in November 1901 a convention was held to appeal to Texas governor Joseph D Sayers to replace Galveston's municipal government with a committee appointed by the governor some say attendees at the convention blamed the current Galveston leadership for the sudden downturn in the city's fortunes Sears took their recommendation one of the first acts of Galveston's new local government was to appoint a board of Engineers and task them with coming up with a plan to protect the island from any future storms that could blow their way the three Engineers selected were Henry Martin Robert Alfred Noble and Henry Clay Ripley Robert a former member of the U.S Army Corps of Engineers and a retired army Brigadier General is perhaps best remembered for being the author of the seminal work Robert's Rules of Order which has been called the most widely used reference for meeting procedural and business rules in the English-speaking world Noble had extensive experience in this type of project required in Galveston as he had helped raise parts of Chicago it was part of the team that chose the route for the Panama Canal Ripley who is a member of the Galveston Corps of Engineers knew the island well as he had helped to construct its Jetties and also assisted in creating the Houston shipping channel that runs nearby in conjunction with the residents of Galveston the civil engineers began an ambitious almost Unthinkable construction project that would not only include a massive sea wall and Causeway but to raise the city's grade literally to raise Galveston Island J.M O'Rourke and Company of Denver was hired for construction of a 17 593 foot long sea wall that would search three miles along the seaward side of the island this enormous wall weighed an estimated 40 000 pounds per foot the American Society of civil engineers said that this well was built to stand 17 feet above the average low tide measurement and gave much needed protection to the island two specifically modified 16 by 34 foot rail cars moved on a track that have been built along the Wall's length the rail cars were fitted with boilers engines concrete mixers and Derricks each featuring a 26 foot long boom that could deliver raw materials and containers full of mixed concrete the society lists the astonishing amount of materials to construct the wall as 5200 Railway carloads of crushed granite 1800 carloads of sand a thousand carloads of cement 1200 of round wooden pilings for a thousand of wooden sheet pilings 3 700 of stone rip rap and five car loads of reinforcing Steel an embankment was built up behind the concrete wall and then the sea wall itself was eventually extended on either side to shelter Galveston even more in addition to the seawall the city itself was raised to protect it from future Storm surges quarter mile Square sections were enclosed by dikes and then everything when that within that area was raised with hand turned Jack screws including not only entire buildings but also utilities like sewer water and gas mains the 3 000 ton St Patrick's Church was lifted five feet using 700 Jack screws through careful planning the engineers managed to raise the utility lines without disrupting service to the city the approximately 16.3 million cubic yards of sand that was used to raise Galveston was dread from the Island's Harbor and transported along a 20-foot deep 200 foot wide and two and a half mile long Canal excavated specifically for that purpose a slurry of water and the fill sand was sailed down the canal to discharge stations the mixture was then pumped into the area to the desired level and then the water drained away leaving the sand behind New Foundations were constructed for the buildings and the structures were then fastened to their new bases more than 2 000 buildings had to be raised including churches schools 1226 Cottages 413 one straight houses and 162 Stables the grade was made at a slope it was 16 and a half feet at the sea wall supporting the wall but decreases it went towards the bay ending at eight feet along the city streets to drain into the bay a side benefit of taking the sand from the harbor was that larger ships would be able to utilize Galveston's Harbor in the future whereas before the water had been too shallow for larger vessels to use the entire project from the sea well construction to raising the island was finally completed on August 8 1910 with a final price tag of approximately 3.5 million dollars adjusting for inflation that would be a jaw-dropping 94 million dollars today still investors no longer trusted Galveston in the same way and the opening of the Houston Ship Channel further moved Commerce North the great storm is seen as the end of Galveston's golden age in the beginning of what was called the open Age where Galveston became more of a Leisure destination than an important port of Commerce the island was never the same though the city was safer from the damaging sea waves it looked Barren and so City residents began planting trees and flowers many may have attained their plans from George Seeley Jr a Galveston resident who owned a 14-acre Oleander nursery on the island in which he had cultivated over 60 different types of flowers the Women's Health protective Association of Galveston planted an estimated 10 000 trees and 2500 Oleanders in a massive beautification project after the raising their efforts led to one of Galveston's nicknames the Oleander City the great storm of 1900 continued across the United States and actually strengthened as it came across the Midwest it brought 84 mile per hour winds to Chicago it did significant damage to Buffalo New York it killed nearly 200 people mostly in ships at Sea when it struck the east coast of Canada 16 days after having made landfall in Galveston the effectiveness of the Galveston sea wall was tested by a storm of similar strength and path in 1915. the storm damaged the wall did significant damage to the parts of the Town not protected by the wall but damage was significantly less than in 1900 although 53 people on the island died in the storm in 2001 the American Society of civil engineers recognized the Galveston sea wall and grade raising as a National Historic civil engineering Landmark program and the seawall itself is on the national register of historic places Isaac Klein dedicated the rest of his life to better understanding severe weather so that he could better warn people about incoming storms and floods his careful analysis of observational data of 20 years of tropical Cyclones in the Gulf that was published in the 1926 book tropical Cyclones revolutionized the scientific understanding of the nature of hurricanes and better prepared scientists to be able to warn people about the path that a hurricane might take saving countless lives today the highest award offered to employees of the National Weather Service is called the Isaac M Klein award in his honor [Music] on June 4th 1921 according to the blog this month in climate history on the webpage of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration what started out as just a normal day in June would rapidly turn into one that would never be forgotten by the residents of the town of Pueblo Colorado 100 years ago today the great flood came at a transition point between the wild west and the modern world reminding us that both are subject to the awesome power of nature and the victims of the Pueblo flood of 1921 deserve to be remembered the city of Pueblo Colorado began as a trading post established by Mountain Man including the famous bloody armed James beckworth in 1842 the post gained knew significance during the Colorado Gold Rush and by the 1870s was considered a major economic and social Center in the state the city was a center for agriculture and the huge steel plant of the Colorado Fuel and iron company had made the Colorado Town into what the Christian Science monitor described as a great Steel City in addition Pueblo become known as the saddle-making capital of the world the newspaper The Pueblo Chieftain explains Pueblo was known as the saddle-making capital of the world in the Years between 1870 and 1921 Pueblo's location on the good night loving Cattle Trail which stretched from Texas to Cheyenne Wyoming and proximity to ranching country and coal and Silver Mines made it a natural place for harness and saddle makers to set up shop in 1920 the city boasted a population of forty three thousand fifty people the city was built along the Confluence of Two Rivers the Arkansas River and its tributary Fountain Creek well a major tributary to the Mississippi the approximately 1400 Mile Long Arkansas River is normally tame as it meanders through Pueblo described as being little more than a brook but the Topography of Southern Colorado can cause Creeks to rise quickly as clouds pressing against the Rocky Mountains are forced upwards releasing their moisture in what the U.S Geological Survey describes as rainfalls of great intensity a 1948 water supply paper published by the survey entitled floods in Colorado explains Topography is the chief factor in determining the location of Storms and resulting floods these occur most frequently on the Eastern Slope of the Front Range the unique Topography of what is called the Eastern Foothills gives rise to a western phenomenon called Cloud bursts the paper describes these storms these Cloud bursts are of short duration are confined to very small areas at times the intensity is so great is to make breathing difficult for those exposed to a storm a flood resulting from a cloudburst Rises so quickly that it usually is described as a wall of water as a peak duration of only a few minutes followed by a rapid subsidence according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during a typical Cloud births more than a half inch of rain can fall in a matter of minutes a 1922 report by the U.S Geological Survey notes that there are many tributaries in the Foothills about Pueblo within this area there are many tributaries that rise in the mountains that bound the drainage basin the tributaries from the north are oil Six Mile Eight Mile Brush Hollow Beaver turkey and dry creeks and those from the south are Chandler Oak coal Hard Scrabble red Rush packs and rock creeks and that means that any Cloud burst in the Foothills between Canyon City and Pueblo will flow down into that normally Placid Confluence of the Arkansas River and Fountain Creek the report described the pressure systems driving the storms in the Arkansas River Valley in early June 1921. the daily weather maps for the first week in June showed that an area of high pressure appeared over the province of Alberta on June 1st by June 5th the area had reached the point of the Great Lakes during this period an area of low pressure developed over Western Arizona and remained over the southern Rocky Mountain Plateau for several days the difference in pressure between the high and low areas caused air currents to travel from the high to the low in an Endeavor to equalize the pressure the relative positions of the areas of high and low pressure caused the storm to come primarily from the east or Northeast All Along The Front Range in Colorado and New Mexico heavy rains occurred when the clouds were forced upwards by reaching the mountains but nowhere else was the rainfall as heavy as in the upper Arkansas Valley according to the website or the city of Pueblo the flood warning first came at 6 30 PM June 3rd 1921 an unknown person called and reported that the Arkansas River was flooding Upstream the flood was caused by a sudden Cloud burst on the Arkansas just 10 miles west of Pueblo the flood only became worse later on when Fountain Creek also began to flood from downpours 30 miles north when the two merged in the heart of Pueblo the results were catastrophic one problem facing meteorologists is that cloudbursts occur in such an intense burst in such a narrow area that they can be difficult to measure the 1948 Geological Survey paper explains the areas of intense rainfall are so small that whether Bureau precipitation stations have not been located in them local residents being cloudburst conscious frequently measure the rainfall in receptacles in their yards and such records constitute the only source of information regarding the intensity this was a problem regarding measuring the precipitation of the storms that occurred between June 3rd and 5th 1921. according to the Geological Survey no weather bureau stations are maintained in the region of heavy rainfall in the Arkansas River Basin noting that within this region in small areas the rainfall was intense the precipitation in these areas can only be roughly estimated still the website of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration notes that while there was no official weather bureau rainfall reporting station in Pueblo at the time well authenticated records indicated that a total of six inches or more fell between June 3rd and June 5th although private citizens measured many of the reported rainfall amounts in tubs and buckets the remarkable erosion in the area also confirmed the exceptional amount of precipitation reported the intensity of the rain is illustrated by the report of a Mr Fred Rosencrantz interviewed by the Geological Survey at the time the water in the Arkansas appear to be flowing both up and downstream the upriver current being caused by the info from Blue Ribbon Creek and other Arroyos from the south the cloudburst created their characteristic wall of water coming along both the Arkansas and Fountain Creek the NOAA website explains as the torrential rains fell the Arkansas River and Fountain Creek quickly began to swell reaching over 15 feet in some areas before they begin to recede the 1922 Geological Survey report describes the extent of the damage the entire Arkansas Valley from 30 miles west of Pueblo to the state line was severely affected and the loss of life and property was Heavy the greatest damage was done in Pueblo the chief City in the valley the newspaper the plateau voice of Coburn Colorado reported in half an hour so rapidly did the Torrance descent water Port of the top of railings of bridges scores of people were caught as the flood entered Main Street flowing South in to Union Avenue within two hours the entire wholesale District in a greater part of the business district were flooded with water 10 feet deep the city of Pueblo web page recalls that all the bridges over Fountain Creek were destroyed the plateau voice reported 100 persons were on the Fourth Street bridge when it collapsed almost all of them are believed to have been lost the USGS report argued that the exact extent of losses to life and property will never be known noting that the loss of life in Pueblo was Heavy owing to the Swift Rise of the river and the unwillingness of many people to heed the flood warnings a report to the Pueblo City Council stated that 510 dwellings were washed away 98 buildings wrecked and 61 buildings washed from their foundations the desperation of the night was illustrated by the remarkable story of blind Harry Wade described in the Topeka State Journal I've been through the frisco earthquake and both my eyes put out in a mine Explosion seven years ago and got a game leg said Harry a young spirited gnarled giant of 55 years his face was leather-skinned from the world's Hard Knocks in a varied career of minor farmer and Globetrotter the paper reported that Harry stayed at a rooming house kept by Doris Deber when he heard the building collapsing and the next block he said I went into Doris's room and told her we'd better beat it just then the whole building seemed to fall on us I was caught under a massive stuff if I could move a little the timber is apparently protecting me from the stuff piled up I felt around my head thinking Old Timer you'll be lucky to get out of this amazingly the sightless man felt his way out of the wreckage only to be caught in the flooding on the street I rolled over and over with the flood getting halfway up and then going down again Harry was pulled from the Water by another citizen saying I guess it simply wasn't my turn to cash in but the ending of the story isn't entirely happy in the story Harry says that he heard that his landlady Doris survived though he says exactly how gets me the paper reports that Harry had not been told that Doris's body lay in the locomorg the flood did extensive damage to the railroads which had terminals in the city the USGS reports notes that of the six railroad bridges over Arkansas River and three over Fountain Creek only one the Santa Fe bridge to the Union Depot escaped some 2 000 railroad cars in The Yards around Pueblo were lost some cars according to the USGS were flow to Great distances and were never recovered and not all the cars were empty the report goes on a Denver and Rio Grande train and a Missouri Pacific train were caught in the flood while trying to reach Higher Ground and cars were overturned several lives were lost on June 7th the Los Angeles Times reported the experience of an eyewitness Mrs Ruby Ellis of Wichita Kansas was imprisoned in an overturned a Pullman coach on the Denver and Rio Grande with her nine-year-old daughter Mildred Mary for more than four hours we were only 20 feet from the riverbank the car turned over gradually as the water rushed under the bottom it seemed that the others turned over one by one shortly after we stepped on the rods in the upper birth and held onto the rods on the top of the car the water Rose rapidly until it reached my chin my little girl was clinging to my neck I'd given up hope of life when the water came up to my chin Mildred Mary had not cried or complained up to this time and she asked what shall I do mother and I told her to pray then she repeated over and over Jesus I trust you the water receded and they were able to escape the car according to the report one impacted the damage to the railways was that so great was the damage to Railroad property not only in Pueblo but in the surrounding territory that not a relief train could enter Pueblo for two days and the water was not the only danger ironically for some death came by fire the plateau voice reported that many business houses and dwellings were set a fire by burning Timber floating from a flaming lumber yard report this week by KOA news Colorado explains after the rain then came fire as the city was underwater fires began to break out burning piles of Timber from a lumber yard floated through the streets and with inset buildings on fire the federal report says that the fires were almost impossible to contain because water surrounded the buildings as high as 14 feet in some areas meaning fire teams could not reach the buildings the damage was devastating a poem by Walt Drummond was published in The Pueblo Chieftain two weeks after the flood clouds burst to Sunder and the Deluge came towards us that nature in her maddest mood sent down the Raging Waters of the flood to Scourge the fertile valleys of the plain and fair Pueblo Manhattan build it there was crushed and maimed now prostrate bleeding lies the rains continued causing more damage and hampering relief efforts a third flood came on the sixth the Port Arthur News of Port Arthur Texas reported a river gone mad today held the suffering refugees of Pueblo's flood in constant Terror sweeping down the rampaging Arkansas a new wall of water let loose by the breaking of a dam above here the first warning of which came from Trinidad struck the city with another blow early today troops racing with death rushed in all directions to weren't inhabitants of the oncoming five-foot wall of water women and children obtaining their first rest since the flood broke early Friday night were aroused in order to go to Higher Ground the paper reported that roads constructed to carry relief to stricken inhabitants were washed out by a new five-foot wall of water when the water subsided the extent of the damage became clear the newspaper of the Lahoma son of Lahoma Oklahoma quoted major Paul Newlin of the Colorado State guard a few days after the flood conditions are Beyond description virtually every building from the post office to the square beyond the station on Union Avenue were completely wiped out in addition to the Havoc brought by the water buildings undermined by the inundation have caused the scene of desolation and horror beyond anything I have ever seen the Port Arthur News reported the city's in dire need of food clothing water and medical assistance Pueblo is without service of any public utility every important Mercantile house and Retail Store is flooded and their stock ruined the Modesto California bee described the scene in the ruined City two fox terriers wandering four Alone Together under the site of their former home a woman with white stockings wetting Knee Deep through mud to her wrecked house and a massive steel brick and wood debris invariably landed in ludicrous places the newspaper reported that a cottage was thrown up in front of the Belmont rooming House downtown the newspaper notes that the cottage had originally stood more than a mile away and by a strange coincidence was the birthplace of the proprietus of the boarding house in front of which the flood had deposited it the damage seemed to highlight the transformation of the city from a frontier to a modern town the Port Arthur News opined Pueblo is going back temporarily to Pioneer Days of the West no telephone no gas no electricity no train or Street Car Service no City water supply the automobiles however are still running there is little or no ice obtainable in Pueblo all commercial ice plants were knocked out by the flood pop as a substitute for water was popular but iceless pop still the Modern Age show through the paper reported of a black woman who'd been caught in the flood who took an all-over mud bath and a treetop and was removed for Dad she was in the Inn saved when a pole motor brought her back to life in a morgue the artificial respirator that saved her had only been invented in 1908 many reports note how despite the devastation the city recovered quickly receiving aid from throughout the nation although the city's famous saddle-making industry was largely destroyed by the destruction of downtown businesses a system of levees and a reservoir were built to reduce the likelihood of such devastating floods in the future the financial damages of the flood were enormous with the damages to businesses to the railway yards and rail stock to the agriculture that was lost to the loss of some 600 homes estimates are that the total Financial costs exceeded some 300 million dollars in today's dollars but the human cost was even harder to measure with estimates ranging between less than 100 to as many as 1500. a master's thesis for the Harvard University extension School in 2020 created a database of some 600 names of people who are presumed to have died based on contemporary newspaper reports but the thesis concludes that the numbers are likely greatly understated and that the great flood of 1921 in Pueblo is likely the deadliest flood in the history of the state of Colorado and among the deadliest in United States history I hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guide short Snippets of Forgotten history and if you did enjoy feed the algorithm by making a comment or clicking that like button if you have suggestions for future episodes please send those to our suggestions email box check out our webpage at thehistoryguide.net and of course we're on Facebook Instagram and Twitter you can book a special message from the history guy on Cameo and check out our merchandise at teespring.com and if you'd like more episodes of Forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe [Music]

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 90,159

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy

Id: Ipny1ez6xiw

Length: 55min 3sec (3303 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 10 2023