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Saturday Morning News

Galveston Commemorates 100th Anniversary of Nation's Deadliest Natural Disaster

Aired September 9, 2000 - 8:20 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Ceremonies are being held all weekend in Galveston, Texas as the city marks the 100th anniversary of our nation's deadliest natural disaster.

CNN's John Zarrella is joining us now live from Galveston with more on what's known as the great storm. I think of it as Isaac's storm after the book. John, how are people commemorating it all?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, you know, imagine 100 years ago today, September 9th, which was the day after the great storm that killed an estimated 8,000 people. Galvestonians were coming out of their homes. They were dazed, many of them cuts and bruises, and they began the gruesome task, really, of trying to find the dead, pick up the bodies and begin the disposals of the bodies.

It was a day similar to this, the sun coming up, some cloud cover, but the waters had receded. They had seen a 15 foot wall of water come into the city, inundate the entire lowland, the island here and really it has never been memorialized before until this weekend.

It has been an event, Miles, that the people of Galveston, for a lot of reasons, because of the enormity of the tragedy, just wanted to put behind them. They didn't want to talk about it. In fact, on the 50th anniversary of the great storm, there was only a brief mention in the newspaper. But this weekend, for the first time, there are major ceremonies. Last night, there was a candlelight vigil. Three thousand people crammed an auditorium, sang Amazing Grace and listened to speakers talk about that disaster and there will be other ceremonies today as well.

The Place of Remembrance, as it's called, will be dedicated in a couple of hours. Now, the stories of the great storm of 1900 have been passed on now for 100 years. There are very few people left who actually lived through that storm, but we found one, Lorraine Hofeller, and we spent some time yesterday talking with her about the storm.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA: The night before the hurricane, what was it like?

LORRAINE HOFELLER, 1900 GREAT STORM SURVIVOR: Beautiful. A beautiful night. It was a cool night. ZARRELLA: The next day, though, when you woke up...

HOFELLER: That's all entirely different. And it was drizzling and my mother had to come and pick me up over a couple of puddles that we went. We didn't know the water was coming in from the beach at that time. See, there was a sea wall and nothing there.

ZARRELLA: Where were you when the storm really was bad?

HOFELLER: Oh, well, I was in my house and in the dining room we were there all night.

ZARRELLA: Was there a point there were everyone was very scared or worried?

HOFELLER: My parents were. I didn't know, realize it. But they were scared to death, especially my father, and he walked around with a hatchet in his hand because he was going to have to, thought he might have to poke a hole in the wall to the wall that would hold the house down.

ZARRELLA: And after the worst of the storm was over, your father had a stick?

HOFELLER: Oh, that was, yes, that was the next morning.

ZARRELLA: Oh, it was the next morning?

HOFELLER: Yes. Yes. He poked a hole in the ceiling and the water came into a bucket that he put down and I remember if frightened me so, I yelled bloody murder. I remember crying. It frightened me. I didn't know what it was.

ZARRELLA: Were you frightened of hurricanes in, after the 1900 hurricane?

HOFELLER: I've been frightened of hurricanes all of my life, ever since I remembered any of it. I remember enough that I was scared to death and I've always been scared. I'm still scared to this minute. Every time it thunders and lightnings, I'm scared of thunder and lightning. And I'm scared of storms.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA: After the hurricane, Galvestonians built a sea wall. It's now 11 miles long and 17 feet high. The hope is that no storm like the great storm of 1900 will ever again inundate the city.

John Zarrella, reporting live from Galveston, Texas.

O'BRIEN: Interesting story.

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