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As cluna3 suggests, both common and wealthy individuals alike wanted Galveston to be salvaged from the disastrous hurricane that effectively destroyed the island, similar to how the boosters of Chicago were quick to rebuild in order to protect their investments. Bixel offers two examples of how Galveston citizens reacted to possible reform. Before the hurricane, in the 1870’s, citizens were unwilling to pay for the construction of barricades, dikes, or any other coastal protection from the ocean despite numerous storms that damaged property. Even in 1886, the citizens fiercely resisted such construction after another large storm. After the storm, however, opposition seemed to fade, as the new Deep Water Committee(DWC) quickly set out to construct a large sea wall and to raise the ground level of the city. These projects met little opposition, and the citizens were even willing to relinquish the right to elect the city leaders.

Bixel highlights the cause and effect scenario that nature and humans tend to take part in. Like in many other disasters, humans often have poor city planning or poor policy in the wake of disaster, resulting in devastation in both population and economics. Galveston is another prime example of this, as Bixel presents the quick willingness to rebuild Galveston. Examples such as Galveston represent a pattern in which humans are stubborn. They are slow to fortify their cities but quick to rebuild them, and the DWC’s efficient management of Galveston is one of many examples from the turn of the 19th Century. The Gilded Age offered many disasters that directly fueled the birth of the Progressive Movement, leading to infrastructure reform on a national scale.