January 7, 2013. The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 is the deadliest natural disaster ever to strike the United States. By contrast, the second-deadliest storm to strike the United States, the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane, caused more than 2,500 deaths, and the deadliest storm of recent times, Hurricane Katrina, claimed the lives of approximately 1,800 people.
The excerpt is from Wikipedia. I recalled reading about the Galveston Hurricane in James Michener's book, Texas. I did not recall exactly how deadly it was; somewhere between 6000 and 12,000 people lost their lives. The best estimate is 8000. Many lives were lost because residents ignored warnings to retreat to high ground. Now, houses are built on stilts, so residents are already on high ground.
The local weather forecast informs us that 2-5 inches of rain is expected over the next two days. Some areas will get 7-8 inches and we are warned to be alert for flash floods. Annie says we should cancel the second day of our planned stay here and move east to get out of the storms. I say jellyfish bites and storms aren't so bad. I wonder who will win this debate. No, I don't. You know who will win, too.
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