HURRICANE Ike left Galveston an uninhabitable mess last week but, unlike in adjacent communities along the Texas coast, most of its buildings were still standing. That鈥檚 because Galveston learned crucial lessons from the most deadly natural disaster in US history.
In September 1900, a hurricane sent a storm surge of more than 4.6 metres right across the town, which is built on a sandy barrier island. Wind-driven waves trashed most buildings and killed some 8000 people, more than four times the toll of hurricane Katrina.
As a result, Galveston built a 5-metre sea wall to protect itself from waves coming off the Gulf of Mexico. But the key to limiting flooding from the back of the island 鈥� not protected by a sea wall 鈥� was raising land levels in the city by up to 5 metres, says Orrin Pilkey, a coastal geologist at Duke University in North Carolina.
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No other coastal city in the US has raised its land levels, even New Orleans, half of which is below sea level. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know why in 1900 we took lessons seriously, but in 2008 we brush them off,鈥� he says.
Hurricanes 鈥� awesomely destructive, and they may be getting worse. Keep up with the latest in our continually updated special report.
