A Weekend in September

by John Edward Weems

Book Overview

The hurricane that swept Galveston Island early in September, 1900, occupies a unique place in the reckoning of events of the Texas Gulf coast. Nearly a century after its passing, the storm remains the standard against which the ferocity and destructiveness of all others are measured. Twothirds of Galveston's buildings were washed away at a cost that was never fully calculated. More than 6,000 people were killed. And in the collective memory of a...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0890963908
• ISBN13: 9780890963906
• Release Date: July 1988
• Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.69 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Old but not outdated

I read this on the plane to Louisianna for a visit after Katrina and Rita and then loaned it to friends who live in Baton Rouge. I loved "Isaac"s Storm" and have read it twice but this is a worthy companion to it. Although written 50 years ago, it has more personal detail and interviews with survivors while the scientific data is, of course, less accurate than "Isaac's Storm." There are many excellent books about hurricanes available now - try "Sudden Sea" and "Storm of the Century" about Florida hurricanes - and, if our weather experts are to be believed - we are heading into a period of extreme hurricane weather right now. These books are reminders of what has happened and what can happen again. I highly recommend them all.

You will tremble as you read

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.

Hurricanes, nothing to ignore.............

In hurricane terms, this book would be a category 5, catastrophic damage to any idea that hurricanes are not potentially deadly. This was an amazing account of the 1900 hurricane that slammed into Galveston, causing unimaginable death and destruction. This book came to my attention after reading Isaac's Storm, a book about the same hurricane. While that book was very good, this was even better. The author interviewed survivors of this storm, and the stories are amazingly frank and clear. When told through the eyes of so many survivors the book takes on a life of it's own. While it does document an event, it never dry or dull. It brings the power of a hurricane to reality and helps the reader to realize that this power is not something that man can control. To realize that predicting the weather has made such a giant leap forward from 1900 may lead people to be complacent in the face of a hurricane,but read this and you will never feel that way again. The descriptions of the sounds and the level of noise were vivid and made me clearly remember the category three hurricane I went through with my family a few years ago. This should be required reading for anyone who lives along the coast, and even inland where hurricane damage can still be catastrophic. Mother Nature deserves respect, and if you don't give it to her.......well.......read the book!!

The Best Galveston 1900 Storm Book

This book is more of a story that a documentary. It is the best book on the Galveston 1900 Storm. It could easily be made into a movie more interesting than Titanic because the love story was real. Why no film writer hasn't capitalized on this story, especially this year, is stupidity. Read this before Issac's Storm.

THE Primer for Hurricane Preparedness Necessity

I was introduced to this book in the 60's and found it compelling reading again this year. As a BOI (born on the island), and lifetime resident of the Gulf Coast, I am reminded of its bone chilling depiction of the 1900 storm each time a hurricane threatens the Gulf Coast. "A Weekend in September" is well constructed, historically significant and should reside on the bookshelf of every family in or near a hurricane prone area. Furthermore, it should be re-read every June 1 !