This Week in Texas Methodist History December 22

Superintendents Report Devastation by Hurricane 1915. December 1915

The Galveston Storm of `1900 is well known as the greatest natural disaster in the history of the United States with at least 6,000 fatalities and attendant loss of property.  Less well known is the fact that the upper Texas coast faced another terrible hurricane just 15 years later.  The 1915 hurricane did not cause as much loss of life, but the coastal plain had experienced population growth.

W. P. Stewart, the U. S. Weather Observer in Galveston is credited with saving hundreds of lives.  Well before the storm arrived, he sent motorcycles in a twenty mile radius from Galveston warning people, "If you do not shelter behind the sea wall, you will be killed."   With memories of the 1900 storm still fresh, hundreds of residents, campers, and workers took his advice and were saved.  

h as a result of the petroleum boom in the intervening years so the second storm also caused great damage.  

+

Newspapers of the era carried stories of both damage and dramatic rescues.  The four masted schooner the Dora Allison en route from Progresso to Mobile was swept over the Galveston sea wall and deposited on the parade ground of Fort Crockett.  All eight crewmen were saved.   

Gus Carlson, a crewman on the dredge boat San Bernard was found in the surf fifteen miles down the coast from where the boat was sunk.  He was wearing a life belt and was unconscious when discovered.  All of his ship mates were killed.   Galveston, Anahuac, Wallisville, and Port Arthur were all devastated while Texas City suffered relatively minor damage as compared to the more exposed locations.  At Sabine Pass 75 residents crowded into the brick school house.  It was the only structure in town left standing.

When the Texas Conference of the MEC met in Galveston in December 1915, the District Superintendents reported on the damage to churches and parsonages.  Here is what they reported:

Wallisville—church and parsonage both destroyed. 

Angleton and Columbia---had to abandon property because of May Flood; August hurricane destroyed every church on the circuit.

Houston Tabernacle—pastor and family escaped by wading through waist deep water.  The roof and all interior furnishings were destroyed.

Houston Calvary—entire church destroyed

Houston St. Mark’s –entire church destroyed.

Houston Sloan Memorial—parsonage damaged

Houston Trinity—damage to church building but covered by insurance

Sweeny Circuit—all crops destroyed by storm, could not pay any apportionments

Thompson’s Circuit---all churches on the circuit underwater every time Brazos overflows

Texas City Circuit—both churches damaged

Freeport—plans to start a new church abandoned because of flood

Hockley Circuit—meeting house destroyed by flood

More than 100 years later the Texas Conference continues to deal with flood damage.