Program Information

Winds raging at more than 100 miles an hour. Houses crumbling right and left. Flood waters storming through the town. The Great Hurricane of September 1900 was paying a visit to Galveston, Texas.

A Moment in Time is a brief, exciting and compelling journey into the past. Created to excite and enlighten the public about the past, its relevance to the present and its impact on the future, A Moment In Time is a captivating historical narrative that is currently broadcast worldwide.

Transcript

Lead: Winds raging at more than 100 miles an hour. Houses crumbling right and left. Flood waters storming through the town. The Great Hurricane of September 1900 was paying a visit to Galveston, Texas.

Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: In the middle of the storm, meteorologist Isaac Cline and his wife Cora, their three children, and his brother Joe were all huddled in the family home--when suddenly a streetcar trestle slammed into the side of the house, causing their home to collapse. Joe and two of the children quickly escaped through a window. Joe called for his brother, but the other three were trapped against the chimney under the wreckage. Suddenly the wreckage shifted and the little group was thrown upward, but that was hardly a comfort. A flash of lightning revealed one of Isaac's daughters clinging to a piece of debris and his brother and other children in the distance. Cora was gone. The next few hours were a nightmare. At one point the group was sucked out to sea. Screams punched through the howling winds. Acts of bravery were commonplace as residents pulled bodies from underneath crushing beams and helped others dodge fallen electrical lines.

The dawn of September 9, 1900 brought an eerie silence to Galveston. What was once a bustling Texas resort town was now mostly rubble. Eight thousand people died that night--most due to the hurricane's storm surge, water picked up by the wind and slammed into the low-lying town. Unfortunately, Galveston's leaders had refused to build a sea wall because it was thought to detract from the beauty of the beach.

Devastated by his loss, Isaac resigned from the Weather Service, eventually moving to New Orleans and opening an art shop. Galveston pulled together after the Great Hurricane of 1900 and the city was rebuilt. Not surprisingly, one of the first things they constructed was a protective sea wall.

A Moment in Time is produced by Steve Clark. At the University of Richmond, this is Dan Roberts.

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