b'o u rh i s t o r yLeftBob Simpson with his wife, Joanne Malkus, both doctors of meteorology, photographed before boarding a hurricane hunter flight in the Pacific, late 1950s. BelowDowntown Corpus Christi in the aftermath of the great Hurricane of 1919, which Bob survived as a 6-year-old. The washed-out Simpson home is circled in red.COASTAL BEND LEGENDS Observatory in Havana, one of the worlds most FATHER OF HURRICANE RESEARCH WASrespected meteorological institutions. After all, the Spaniards, who lost control of Cuba in the four-BOY SURVIVOR OF THE GREAT STORM OFmonth war, had just a bit of experience understand-ing and surviving the forces of the sea. Father Loren-1919ROBERT HOMER BOB SIMPSON zo Gangoite, the director of the institute, predicted that a tropical storm that had ridden the southern coast of Cuba, east to west, would enter the Gulf of As seemingly unreliable as weather forecasting feels in our modern world, a century ago meteorology wasMexico and strengthen greatly into a major hurri-little more than a series of educated guesses based on unreliable networks of post-action weather reportingcane, and then proceed to cross the coast of Texas on land, and less reliably at sea. First warnings of Atlantic hurricanes came from islands in the Caribbean andand end up somewhere near San Antonio.Western Atlantic as well as from merchant and naval ships at sea, that were relayed northward to Cuba andThe philosophy and practice of the U.S. Weather the mainland United States. Storms were classified as major or minor depending on their general intensityBureau in 1900, quite contrary to what we have at the moment a report was sent but could not account for strengthening of storms over warm, open waters. today, was to avoid panic in coastal communities The trickiest storms to track and predict were the ones that crossed the Florida peninsula from the Atlantic,by intentionally downplaying impending threats moving westward across the Gulf of Mexico. Sadly, two such storms devastated the Texas Gulf Coast in thefrom tropical cyclones. In fact, regional warnings span of two decades, taking residents almost completely off-guard, less acts of desperate evacuation ashad to be cleared by headquarters in Washington, devastation loomed inevitable. At the turn of the 20th Century, Galveston was the fourth largest city in TexasD.C., before being transmitted to local officials and and was well on its way to becoming the prime Gulf Coast destination for wealthy, East Coast investors. In anthen to the public. As the first tropical storm of the effort to ease the concerns of those investors and new residents, the citys official weather forecaster routine- 1900 season crossed the Florida Straits into the Gulf ly declared Galveston immune from the kind of devastation that befell Indianola, located 115 miles downof Mexico, the Havana warnings were ignored, and the coast, when major hurricanes struck in 1875 and again in 1886storms that reduced the once-thrivingofficial advisories were issued for localities from port city on Matagorda Bay to a ghost town. Pensacola to New Orleans only. By the time the great storm was looming off the upper Texas coast with War always amplifies the intensity of natural disasters. The Spanish Flu killed more soldiers in World War I145 mph winds and a 15-foot storm surge, it was too than World War I itself, but its spread among warring armies was concealed from the public in an effort tolate for an evacuation of Galveston or for any serious conceal it from the enemyon both sidesthus providing no warning of the virus to civilians, doctors ormeasures to avoid a catastropheand thats exactly public officials. By the time the public knew about the new disease that was killing young, healthy people bywhat happened.the hundreds, it had spread throughout Europe. The 1900 Galveston Hurricane reduced one of the Two years after the Spanish-American War, lingering American hostility toward certain Cuban institutions ledcountrys fastest growing and wealthiest cities to to a United States Weather Bureau policy that blocked telegraph communications from the Belen Collegerubble. Every structure in town suffered some kind 48 THE COASTAL BEND GUIDE TheCoastalBend.com'