How Hurricane Milton compares to the ‘Great Galveston’ – America’s deadliest storm that killed 8,000 in 1900

Hurricane Milton is on track to become one of the most powerful and destructive storms since 1900. 

When the Category 4 ‘Great Galveston’ hurricane hit, it decimated the entire island city of Galveston, Texas, killing 8,000 of the roughly 40,000 residents.

The 15 ft storm surge inundated the island, destroying more 3,600 buildings, the equivalent of roughly $26 billion in today’s money.

Forecasters predict Milton – also a Category 4 – could deliver record-breaking storm surge of 15 feet in Tampa Bay.

Luckily, there are much more sophisticated warning systems and emergency planning today, and modern buildings are generally built to withstand tropical storms.

‘Hurricane forecasting was in its infancy back in 1900s, and it took the town of Galveston pretty much by surprise,’ said Zierden. 

‘There were very little or no evacuations, and the structures and such were not built to today’s building codes and much more vulnerable. So, I don’t think we’ll see a repeat of that kind of thing ever again,’ he added. 

In anticipation of Milton, 51 of 67 Florida counties have been placed under emergency storm warnings and evacuations have been ordered for over 1 million people in west-coast counties.

Both Milton and the Great Galveston Hurricane are Category 4 storms that developed over the Gulf of Mexico and have followed unusual west-to-east paths.

This kind of trajectory ‘is relatively rare, but it’s not impossible,’ Florida State Climatologist David Zierden told DailyMail.com.

‘More often, what we see is hurricanes that develop in the northwest Caribbean or even come into the Gulf from the Atlantic, then recurve and hit the west coast of Florida, like Hurricane Charlie in 2004, Hurricane Ian in 2022, Hurricane Wilma that hit southwest Florida in 2005,’ he added.

Before the Great Galveston Hurricane hit, the city was well on its way to becoming a major US port and a thriving commercial center. 

But when the storm roared ashore – delivering 140 mile-per-hour winds and 15 feet of storm surge – it caused such extreme devastation that it took Galveston 12 years to rebuild.

After the Great Galveston Hurricane made landfall in Texas, it traveled into Oklahoma and Kansas, turned northeastward and crossed over the Great Lakes and into Canada.

Hurricane Milton, however, immediately began moving east after it formed over the Gulf, heading straight towards Florida. 

This is all the more unusual, but also not unheard of, according to Anthony Yanez, chief meteorologist for Houston’s KPRC2 local news station. 

Previous storms have followed this same kind of track before, such as Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and Hurricane Emily in 2017, he wrote.

Hurricane Mitch killed two people and caused $40 million in damage when it made landfall in Florida. There were no fatalities during Hurricane Emily, but damages in Louisiana and Florida cost a total of $10 million. 

Hurricane Milton is currently located in the Gulf of Mexico 520 miles southwest of Tampa – where it is expected to hit with full-force on Wednesday – and is moving east-northeast. 

In terms of damages, displacements and deaths, there is no evidence to suggest that Hurricane Milton will be as devastating as the Great Galveston Hurricane.

But Milton’s impact could still be extreme, especially if the eye of the storm tracks just north of Tampa Bay, historical geographer and hurricane hazards expert Craig Colten told DailyMail.com.

If that happens, ‘we could have really, really massive storm surge flooding in the Bay Area into Tampa. St. Pete could get considerable water as well – a more direct surge,’ he said.

‘It could be devastating. That could wash out bridges, disrupt water supply systems, disrupt all manner of infrastructure,’ he added.  

What’s more, Milton’s impact could be compounded by the devastation from Hurricane Helene, which ravaged the US southeast just 10 days before experts began issuing warnings for the storm.

Helene killed at least 225 people. Hundreds of victims are still missing. 

‘Unfortunately, some of the Helene victims are in the path of this storm,’ Governor Ron DeSantis said during a Monday press conference. 

‘A lot of these homeowners are in recovery mode,’ Zierden said.

‘They probably didn’t have the time or the resources to prepare for this one as much as they normally would,’ he added.

This could compound the damage of this oncoming storm, especially as debris from Helene gets swept up in the storm surge from Milton, Zierden said. 

Over 12,000 cubic yards of debris have been removed in Helene-affected areas of Florida in less than two days, officials have said.  

But he hopes that with the memory of Helene still fresh, more people will take evacuation orders seriously, potentially reducing the total number of injuries and deaths.

Milton rapidly intensified over the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, strengthening from a Category 1 hurricane to a near-record-breaking Category 5 hurricane with winds of 180 miles per hour.

The storm has since weakened to a Category 4 but is expected to remain an ‘extremely dangerous hurricane’ through landfall along Florida’s west coast, according to NHC. 

The NHC also said the central pressure within Hurricane Milton fell to the second-lowest level on record in the Gulf of Mexico and the lowest in the Atlantic Basin since 2005.

A hurricane’s central pressure is closely related to its intensity. The lower the pressure, the more intense the storm and its maximum sustained winds, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 

And in terms of maximum sustained winds, Milton is the strongest hurricane in the Atlantic Basin since Hurricane Dorian in 2019, and it’s tied for the fourth-strongest storm since record keeping began. 

A south Florida meteorologist recently became emotional on air as he described the severity of Hurricane Milton.

‘It’s just an incredible, incredible, incredible Hurricane,’ said John Morales, a certified consulting meteorologist and hurricane specialist for NBC6 in Miami.

His voice cracked as he described the storm’s rapid intensification, noting that the hurricane’s pressure dropped 50 millibars in 10 hours.  

‘I apologize,’ he said, ‘but this is just horrific.’

But thankfully, unlike the Great Galveston Hurricane, Floridians won’t be caught off guard by Milton. 

Counties began issuing evacuation on Monday, and ‘there’s still plenty of time for warnings and to get the word out and make sure Floridians are braced for storm of this magnitude,’ Zierden said.

Extreme storm events like Milton may seem unprecedented, but as we enter a new climate reality, it may be time to ‘shelve that term,’ Colten said.

‘With a warmer climate, a storm like Helene or Milton is the new precedent,’ he said.