A Tale of Two Storms : A comparison of Galveston of 1900 and New Orleans 2005

History does, indeed, repeat itself. Still stinging from the devastation of hurricane Katrina, the announcement of an even stronger storm Rita, believed to be bound for Galveston, TX leads historians to exhume the remaining evidence of the hurricane that decimated Galveston in 1900 and compare our preparedness and resiliency. In the late 1800s many leaders and citizens of Galveston believed that a sea wall to protect the city would be a waste of taxpayer dollars. They had, after all, faired well after a monster hurricane in 1875. The city was full of massive commercial buildings, masonry houses, and buildings more grand than any others in the state of Texas. Most did not see the city as truly vulnerable to such a storm. Years later, it seems the warnings to another vulnerable city were met with the same degree of arrogance and with comparable consequences.

New Orleans, Louisiana, a gulf city, below sea level and a virtual bowl between large bodies of water, held out of the city by levees that citizens believed were enough to keep the city dry. They, too, had faired some terrible hurricanes over the years and felt the trend would continue. These two cities would come to realize their vulnerability to the sea and the terrible expense of their arrogance. Only after the hurricane of 1900, did Galveston diligently work to build a sea wall and raise the city above sea level; and only after the devastation wrought by hurricane Katrina, will New Orleans work to make improvements necessary to prevent the type of chaos, experienced most recently, in the future. What could we have learned from Galveston in 1900 that could have prevented devastation and saved lives in New Orleans?