July 8, 2024 - Good Morning! It's Monday, July 8.
What do these names bring to mind? Alicia, Ike, Rita, Carla, Harvey. If you've been a Texan for very long, you know that they're all catastrophic hurricanes that have visited the Lone Star State. As we wait to see what Beryl is going to do, I'm waxing meteorological today.
Carla, in 1961, is the first storm I can remember. I grew up in Houston and she hit us pretty hard. I was still in H-Town in 1983 when Alicia put a big tree across my driveway. The sound of chainsaws and generators was heard across the land. Rita, Ike, and Harvey have been some fairly recent unwelcome visitors. And even though she wasn't a Texas storm, Katrina sent a lot of evacuees to Houston. Hard to believe that next year will be the 20th anniversary of that disaster.
And then there's the mother of all hurricanes - The Great Galveston Storm of 1900. All these years later, it's still the worst natural disaster in United States history. The storm (this was before we decided to give them names) roared in with 150 mph winds and a 12-foot storm surge. An estimated 8,000 souls were lost, 7,000 buildings and houses were destroyed, leaving a third of Galveston's citizens homeless.
Before the storm, Galveston had been the largest city in Texas and boasted one of the largest ports in the country. It would never regain that place, a place taken over by its neighbor to the north, Houston.
As I write this, it's still uncertain what kind of storm Beryl will be. But, living in Texas, you can be sure of two things - storms will come and Texans will survive. I'm reminded today of God's promise in John 16:33.
"In this world you will have tribulations but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world."
Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org
