Storm Recovery: An Optimistic Outcome

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Reading Patricia Bellis Bixel’s “‘It Must Be Made Safe’: Galveston, Texas and the 1900 Story” was definitely a refreshing way to end the section on the hurricane that decimated Galveston. It had a more optimistic and less grim tone compared to Isaac’s Storm and I definitely appreciated that. However. Bixel has a different agenda with her essay compared to Larson’s so I guess that the difference in tone was default.

Bixel’s essay is about how the island city rebuilt itself and it is important to distinguish the two ways that the city did so. First the city had to change politically, a sentiment that the city populace including the elite acknowledged. There was a growing sense of Progressivism in the area and the hurricane was a way to demonstrate that the city was capable of adapting to changes. Secondly, the city had to change physically, with the raising (not razing) of the city itself and the construction of a seawall along the bay side. The raising and the seawall were widely deemed as accomplishments to modern technology at that time but it was important to note that these technological feats would not have been possible without the support of the public and the legislation, a point that is driven home much throughout Bixel’s essay.

So how did the hurricane shape American ideas about disaster preparedness? Bixel’s essay gave a clear answer. Radical changes to an area cannot occur without changes to the foundation of it; the foundation being the legislative party or parties that oversee the area. And to get change to the foundation, the people must change their mindset. The people of Galveston believed that their city was immune to the destruction of the sea but after the devastating hurricane of 1900, their beliefs quickly changed and so did their mindset. @armando35 says it true, “This notion can be amplified to include different levels of government which must work together in times of disaster to help people. If there is no cooperation people will suffer…”.