b'o u rh i s t o r yof damage, and almost 4,000 homes were washed away, leaving over 10,000 of the citys 38,000 resi-dents homeless. Most left and never returned. Worst of all, an estimated 8,000 people died in Galveston, making the 1900 Hurricane, still, the deadliest nat-ural disaster in American history. Fewer than 1,200 died on both sides of the Spanish-American War.Less than two decades later, Corpus Christi had emerged as the new coastal boom town of Texas, featuring geography that provided natural protec-tion from hurricanes from two barrier islands and a large, open bay acting as a buffer zone between those islands and the mass of population. Reinforc-ing that notion was a hurricane in 1916 that wiped out Port Aransas but left Corpus Christi virtually un-touched. By the end of the first week of September 1919, a tropical storm that originated in the eastern Bahamas had made its way across the northern coast of Cuba and through the Florida Keys as a hur-ricane with 140 mph sustained winds. The storm hadthe U.S. Weather Bureau to strike between Pensacolawhich then encompassed downtown below the a minimal impact on land in Florida, but hundredsand New Orleans. At one point late in the long trekbluff, uptown at the top of the bluff, and North of lives were lost at sea in the Florida Straits andof the 1919 Hurricane (historically referred to as theBeach. While wind speeds had slowed to about 110 eastern Gulf of Mexico. Florida Keys Hurricane), warnings were extendedmph, the 14-foot storm surge swept away hundreds Almost exactly like the Great 1900 Hurricane thatas far west as Freeport, directly south of Houston,of homes and businesses, including the Simpson destroyed Galveston, the 1919 storm strengthenedbut no one predicted that the storm would stay atresidence. As the water rose, the family decided immensely as it slowly made its way across the gulf,sea, eventually making landfall near Baffin Bay. to evacuate to higher ground, namely the recent-east to west, and just like that terrible storm nine- The strong, destructive northeast side of the 1919ly-built Nueces County Courthouse, with six-year-old teen years earlier, this hurricane was predicted byHurricane landed a direct hit on Corpus Christi,Robert Homer Simpson riding on his fathers back.76 THE COASTAL BEND GUIDE TheCoastalBend.com'