I am haunted by an image burned into my mind and heart, while listening to a story on the radio today, about the devastating Galveston hurricane and flood of 1900, exactly one hundred years ago, yesterday and today.By far the greatest loss of lives in the United States, at 6-8,000, no one had a clue it was coming. Galveston had been considered safe. You may read more about it here. To hear the stories I did, with eyewitness accounts, recorded long ago, go to www.npr.org and look for the Lost & Sound Files for September 8th. 28.8 (click) 14.4 (click) It is an extraordinary experience. This is the first time Galveston has had any kind of commemoration. It was not talked about because mostly it was considered bad for business. Survivors didn't talk about it because they just weren't supposed to. ONe man lost 11 family members.
The image that haunts me still is that of a handful of nuns, tying 93 children between them to themselves, six or seven per woman, in order that not one child be lost in the ferocious storm; a storm so strong that one man was beheaded by a sheet of roofing material. As they watched the waters gain higher ground in the orphanage, the nuns had the children join them in singing a hymn in French. It was an old seaman's hymn all about coming throught to the sunshine when the storm was over, if I heard it right. I will have to listen to it again, if I can. The radio production of the story was so well-done, with actual children's voices singing the song behind the announcer's narration.
It caught me unawares; heart wide-open, eyes shut with tears streaming down my face, sobs escaping my throat growing to outloud despair which brought my dog running to see what was wrong. That image, the women with the children, the loss....three boys survived. Some of the nuns' bodies were found on the mainland; one was found with nine children still attached to her by rope; one was found with a child clutched in each arm.
They said that nowadays with our sophisticated weather equipment, this would not happen, as people would be warned well ahead of time. I am glad of that. That image, the women and the children....as well as the others the story brought to my mind and heart...are indellible, as well as the creaky old voice of the old, old survivors finally free to be heard.
There are two songs in the DT which come up if you type in Galveston flood. Please read them and think on those whose lives were lost, reaching out over this one hundred years to touch us and remind us of their being.
Thanks,
kat