Deadliest Hurricane, 1900

In 1900, a category 4 hurricane slammed into the city of Galveston, Texas. The damage was astonishing; 3,600 buildings destroyed by winds over 135 miles. Storm surges got up to 15 feet and up to 12,000 people died. The reason that there was so much damage was because the Weather Bureau in Washington had predicted that the storm would pass over Florida and move up to New England, which was really wrong.

At this time, the Weather Bureau, which later became the National Weather Service, was only 10 years old and wasn't very advanced. The bureau's director had shut down communication about weather between Cuba and the united States and told U.S. forecasters that they had to go through Washington in order to issue a hurricane warning, which just made everything more difficult. The regional meteorologists realized that the storm wasn't going to pass them too late and did not have enough time to warn the city.

In the wake of the Galveston Hurricane, the Weather Bureau opened up communication channels, both internationally and within the US. It is because of devastating storms like Galveston that we have such a reliable weather predicting service now.

http://www.history.com/news/how-the-galveston-hurricane-of-1900-became-the-deadliest-u-s-natural-disaster