( CNN ) -- The worst weather disaster in American history took place in Galveston , Texas , in 1900 when a hurricane estimated as a Category 4 intensity blew ashore , killing thousands of residents and obliterating the town . The unnamed storm was first detected in the Atlantic on August 27 , reaching Cuba as a tropical storm on September 3 . Like Ike , the hurricane crossed Cuba and entered the Gulf of Mexico , crashing ashore just south of Galveston on September 8 . Galveston Island was completely covered by 8- to 16-foot storm tides . Estimates of the death toll range from 6,000 to 12,000 , and property damage was estimated at $ 30 million . Galveston in 1900 was a rich shipping city , home to nearly 40,000 people , many of them made wealthy by Galveston 's position as Texas ' chief port . But they were n't prepared for September 8 . Watch how Ike and the 1900 hurricane are similar » . The flood waters began rising before dawn that morning , and initially the people of Galveston thought nothing of it . For the most part , they even ignored the warnings of U.S . Weather Service meteorologist Isaac Cline , who took to his horse and rode up and down the beach warning people to seek higher ground , an urging that ultimately meant little to a city 8 to 9 feet above sea level at its highest point . `` In reality , there was no island , just the ocean with houses standing out of the waves which rolled between them , '' Cline wrote in his 1945 memoirs . Ironically , Cline had argued against building a sea wall in Galveston , saying it was unnecessary and that a storm of any significant strength , in any event , would never strike the island . The gargantuan storm tides collapsed houses along the beach front and turned them into a wall of debris that pushed further inland on the island . At its final stopping point , the debris kept buildings beyond it from collapse , but not from damage . In the aftermath , everything was bulldozed for 15 blocks from the beach . Photographs could only begin to tell the story of the destruction . Haunting black-and-white images show residents searching through ruins with only a peaked gable to indicate that it was once a home , a house picked up from its foundations and shoved 30 yards away , a body half buried in the debris . Several clips of film exist of the devastation , as well . Black and white and silent , they record the search for bodies and the complete devastation wrought by the hurricane . Many of the storm 's victims were washed out to sea , and many more were taken out to sea and dumped . But those bodies came back to shore with the tides . The city set about burning the bodies on funeral pyres that blazed for weeks . News accounts at the time record the stench of death that hovered over the remains of the city . The destruction was so complete that word of the aftermath could not reach the outside world . Telegraph lines and bridges to the mainland were all down . Messengers aboard one of the few ships to survive the storm reached Houston on September 10 , sending a short message to the Texas governor and U.S. President William McKinley . `` The city of Galveston is in ruins , '' the message said , estimating 500 dead . But Galveston was revitalized in the aftermath of the storm , as well . A sea wall was built . The city was elevated 16 feet at the seawall , sloping downward across the 32-mile-long , 2 1/2-mile-wide island to the bay on the other side . Today , Galveston is a vibrant city and a popular tourist destination with a population approaching 60,000 . Although it never regained its high status as a shipping port , Galveston is still a port of call for cargo ships and now for cruise ships , as well .
Category 4 storm destroyed Galveston in 1900 . Estimates of the death toll range from 500 to 12,000 . Residents issued early storm warnings . Complete destruction kept secret from the outside world .