When Weather Changed History

At the end of the 19th Century, Galveston was the star of Texas. Then, in 1900, the entire city was destroyed by a Category 4 hurricane, changing the future of Texas and opening the door for Houston to flourish. The 1900 disaster was the deadliest natural disaster in US history, causing more deaths than Hurricane Katrina, the September 11 attacks, and the Chicago Fire combined.

The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871. The fire killed up to 300 people, destroyed roughly 3.3 square miles (9 km2) of Chicago, Illinois, and left more than 100,000 residents homeless. Though the fire was one of the largest U.S. disasters of the 19th century, and destroyed much of the city's central business district, Chicago was rebuilt and continued to grow as one of the most populous and economically important American cities. The very night the fire broke out, an even deadlier fire annihilated Peshtigo, Wisconsin and other villages and towns north of the city Green Bay.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed into Alabama, Mississippi, and southeast Louisiana with 175 mph winds. The entire city of New Orleans is flooded. Before it was done, Hurricane Katrina would take more than 1,500 lives, leave many more homeless, and cause 200 billion dollars worth of damage in the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.