Galveston will sigh with relief at the official end of the Atlantic hurricane season on 30 November, but it may never fully recover from September's hurricane Ike. Perhaps it shouldn't try.rnThis wasn't the first time that the city, sited on a low-lying barrier island off the Texas coast, has been devastated by a hurricane. In 1900, Galveston was the US's third busiest port, with a population of 38,000, when a category 4 hurricane hit on 8 September. Winds reached 215 kilometres per hour, a massive storm surge flooded the city and heavy waves smashed buildings. The hurricane killed between 6000 and 10,000 people, making it by far the deadliest in US history.rnAfter that Houston - 80 kilometres inland - became Texas's main port. But Galveston survived, by building a massive 5-metre seawall along the Gulf of Mexico and raising the land level.
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