A Weekend in September
by John Edward Weems
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Book Summary Information
Author: John Edward WeemsEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1988-07-01
ISBN: 0890963908
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: TAMU Press
Book Reviews of A Weekend in September
Book Review: You will tremble as you read
Summary: 5 Stars
It's odd that no titantic movie has ever been made about the greatest natural disaster to ever occur in the United States. Kind of like East Texas, the Big Thicket, and the swamps, the Galveston disaster somehow didn't become part of the Texas myth. Yet, what happened was more devastating than the Chicago fire, San Fransico earthquake, and the Andrea Doria.
Having lost a childhood home to a hurricane on the Texas coast and seeing, with my own eyes, the result of a true 'catagory-5 hurricane,' (the 1900 storm is not rated as a catagory 5), this book terrifies me and makes me feel fortunate at the same time.
My sister and I have studied the maps and explored Galveston Island again and again. We have located where houses or businesses once stood and marvel at the houses (especially on Broadway) that withstood the storm. We stand at the sites and try to imagine what it was like before, during, and after. But nothing we, or anyone now, do can come close to understanding the terror of what happened that night. The Gulf of Mexico and Galveston Bay met and covered the island. There was no warning.
And those who live on the Eastern coast know, there is to this day, no true warning. One of the few things that make weather reports different now from then, is a person inside a tv set equipped with a pointer and big swirling map broadcasting a warning about a hurricane that may or may not hit New Orleans, Port Aransas or Canada.
It's not the weather reporters' fault. It is the fault of the United States government for underfunding the weather bureau and weather research. It's so much easier to blame the people stupid enough to live on the coast in the first place. Just like it's easy to blame the people dumb enough to live in California on a fault; those who live on or near mountains; those who live in fire-prone areas with wind and trees; those who live in flood zones in the desert when it rains, etc.
Somehow, out of all the horrors described in this book, the image that sticks most in my mind is the description of the two terrified women at Morgan's Point seeing a light nearing their house. They are filled suddenly with hope of rescue, until they see the light pass them by and head on downstream, and realize it's a lantern atop a table inside a house that belongs to a neighbor.
For years Galveston did everything it could to wipe out the memory of what had happened there. Now the 1900 hurricane is a huge tourist draw.
All of the natural barriers that saved the place where I now live have been dredged up for its' shell the past 30 years. To this day, the Army Corp of Engineers continues to destroy Galveston Bay in an effort to give itself a reason to exist. In the end, the Corp of Engineers and our own government through its weakening enviromental policies, have destroyed more here than that weekend storm in 1900.
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